Posted on 01/04/2019 1:47:31 PM PST by Olog-hai
Volkswagen and BMW increased their 2018 car sales in the United States while major American competitors General Motors (GM) and Ford both had declines in new vehicle sales, according to sales reports published on Thursday.
Volkswagen sold over 350,000 cars in the US in 2018, a 4.2 percent increase over 2017. It was the company’s second year of sales increases after sales plummeted following the dieselgate scandal, where a US investigation uncovered massive fraud in its diesel emissions reporting. Volkswagen’s boost in sales figures were helped by popular SUVs Tiguan and Atlas.
BMW saw an increase of 1.7 percent to 311,000, its first jump in annual sales since 2015. Their sales of the X3 SUV, a model BMW now builds in China instead of the United States, contributed to the increase.
Meanwhile, GM sold 2.9 million new vehicles in 2018, 2.7 percent less than the previous year. Ford sales dropped 3.5 percent at just under 2.5 million vehicles. …
(Excerpt) Read more at dw.com ...
BMW X3s sold in the USA and almost everywhere else are built in South Carolina. Some are also now being built in China. BMW sells a couple hundred thousand more vehicles in China than in the USA.
German engineering.... Nah, I’ll pass. Europeans have shown themselves to be so stupid lately so why would I think trust their engineering to be so smart?
So Americans have decided to love endless money pits
I considered a Volkswagen suv recently. My son is 16 and getting his license so he’s getting my old Grand Marquis that is 11 years old. I did some research on costs involved with Volkswagens and found replacement parts were rather pricey. I ended up with a used 2015 Nissan Frontier crew cab. I hope to get a decades worth of use or more out of it.
My sister has had BMW’s and went to an Audi this time around. She is a nurse and her husband a doctor and they like kraut cars. My mother-in-law is a European car lover as well, a Mercedes sedan and a Volvo suv. To each their own.
I believe Subaru and even Fiat-Chrysler (exclusively due to Jeep) had bigger increases than VW and BMW.
Interesting. 3 out of 4 moneypits. We must be more affluent as a nation than the doomcrying media tells us.
New vehicles have warranties. The average amount of time a new car is kept is six years.
These days, even vehicles with the worst reliability are far better than a few decades ago.
I had a 1990 GTI. It was always shedding mysterious $50 plastic pieces and needing work. Replaced it with a 2000 Nissan Frontier that went 212K with minimal routine work, and only replaced that with a 2006 Frontier to get 4wd. That one now has 146K and is going strong.
Their sales of the X3 SUV, a model BMW now builds in China instead of the United States, contributed to the increase.
The article is wrong!
That is what I thought too; I thought BMW was making some of the Xs in the US.
Wonder if the writer was confused by BMW making China market X3s in China.
Meh.
Call me when they offer the California van for sale here IN THE US - WITH A DIESEL.
Otherwise, DKDC
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