April 7 (Bloomberg) -- Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, the world's largest maker of luxury cars, said global sales rose 8.2 percent in March to a record on the Mini small car.
BMW Group deliveries advanced to 153,184 vehicles last month from 141,576 cars and sport-utility vehicles a year earlier, the Munich-based company said today in a statement. First-quarter sales climbed 5.7 percent to 351,787 vehicles.
The Mini brand's deliveries increased 24 percent in March to 26,693 cars, while the main BMW brand rose 5.3 percent to 126,406 vehicles. Roll-Royce brand sales climbed 70 percent to 85 cars.
BMW expects record sales this year, after selling 1.5 million vehicles last year, helped by the X5 and Mini models that went on sale at the end of 2006. The carmaker expects Mini sales to reach 240,000 vehicles this year for the first time, it said today.
``Amongst our relevant competitors in the premium segment, we still remain number one,'' Ian Robertson, sales and marketing chief, said in the statement. ``We are also on course to set new records for all three brands for the year as a whole.''

 

Now that R56 has been out for a bit and is more of a known quantity, and judging from good Clubman sales, it'll be interesting to see how cabrio sales do w/ folks waiting (or not) for the 2nd gen car. Speaking as a Cooper owner, it would be very tempting to wait for the newer model if only for the higher mpgs, nevermind the new roll bars.

 

That's great for us that already have one.