From the BMW website:

WOODCLIFF LAKE, N.J., December 2, 2008: The BMW Group in the U.S. (BMW and MINI combined) reported November sales of 19,762 vehicles, a decrease of 26.8 percent over the 26,985 vehicles sold in November 2007. The BMW Group also reported a year-to-date sales volume of 281,564 vehicles, down 6.8 percent, compared to 302,079 vehicles in the same period of 2007.

Note that those figures are for the BMW brand and the MINI brand combined, in the USA. For MINI alone:

MINI Brand Sales
MINI USA reported November sales of 4,545 automobiles, up 43.1 percent from the 3,177 cars sold in November 2007. Year-to-date, the division reported sales of 50,511 automobiles, an increase of 31.3 percent, compared to the 38,483 cars reported in the first eleven months of 2007.
"We've seen some slowing in MINI showroom traffic just the same as everyone else in the last month," said Jim McDowell, Vice-President of MINI USA. "However, we're still positive about our future sales due to the fact the recent frenzy towards more efficient transportation has introduced more consumers to our brand. This has helped us hit the milestone of 50,000 sales in November, one month sooner than we expected."

 

Good for Mini. Those figures mean that BMW-only sales dropped 36%. Ouch. No wonder they are offering good lease rates.

 

Are those(BMW) rates posted some place?

 

Here you go.
http://www.bmwusa.com/Standard/Conte...r/Default.aspx

 

But note that October 2008 sales were 5272 cars, so month to month sales were down 13.7%, so MINI is not totally immune from falling sales.

 

have you seen the sales rates for GM, Ford, Chrysler and even Toyota and Honda? Down 30-40 percent across the board. Makes the October 13% drop for mini look pretty good.

 

I think the reason they quote year-to-year and year-to-date sales figures is seasonality. Sales may have been down 13.7% from October, but it is possible that they usually drop 15% from October to November. A 13.7% drop may actually have been a better-than-normal year...we just don't know. You can't expect every month to be better than the one before (just like home sales are always better in the summer and decline in the fall).

 

Hey, don't get me wrong -- I'm not saying MINI sales were not stellar vis a vis other manufacturers. I mean, looking at the GM sales by brand, there were more MINI's sold than Saturn's, and MINI sales were within 200 cars of Buick sales totals!

However, I do know that pick probably any MINI dealer, go to their web site, pull the new car inventory, and it will be a much larger number than it was a few months ago.

And FYI, I'm very happy with my MCS and do not hesitate to recommend it to anyone who asks if I would still buy it today.