Monday 18 June 2007

BMW vs Audi

According to the SMH, Audi and BMW are at war with each other over discounting.

BMW seems to be ticked off because its sales are growing at 4% a year, as opposed to 40% growth for Audi.

Although the SMH provided those numbers, it seems to have difficulty understanding that BMW sells 3 times more cars in Australia than Audi (and the SMH also published those figures in the article).

Audi sold 4450 cars last year. BMW sold 13000.

OK, let's say Audi 40% growth in 2007. That will lift is sales to 6230 in 2007. If it grows by another 40% in 2008, they will sell 8722 cars. If they get another 40% in 2009, they will sell 12210. Continuing at that rate, they will sell 17000 in 2010 - way more than BMW, assuming BMW is stuck with 4% growth....

But who is to say that Audi can continue to achieve 40% year on year? They only managed a 30% cumulative growth from 2003 to 2006, which is how they got to selling 4450 cars last year.

So what is the article about? I really don't see a point to it, except that luxury car buyers really don't care about the price that much.

Is this news?

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