According to my dealer's sales manger the 550 is selling really well with strong demand and limited availability in the Chicago area. Our rave reviews here of the new 550 sport and the 535 are undoubtedly contributing to the buzz and demand.

 

The dealers and/or BMW ought to just add "www.e60.net" to all the 5 series advertising...

 

what else would a sales manager say?

 

reviewing the monthly 550i sales - they are very consistent month after month. As per Rudy: "You can see monthly figures of 5 series sales dating all the way back to 2003 by looking at Fred's .pdf file here:
http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=43069&hl=

 

My dealership tells me that the 535i ihas been stealing a lot of sales from the 550i up here in Canada, that's why BMW is bundling it with M-Sport as standard feature hoping to convince buyers to pay more for the higher model. Consider that the 550i is 120kg heavier but has only 60 more HP and 60 more lb-ft, it make people think harder before dishing out the extra.

 

I dunno - I've been checking inventory lately on the 550s and they don't seem to be moving much. Maybe it is just the custom ordered ones? I think Patrick has 6 550s in stock right now.

 

What a person will have to look at is the lease terms on a car. I have a lot of experience in the wholesale market and I will bet 15k that the reason that the 550 is hot in the dealer market is because the std lease on a 550 is 3 years and the dealers do not have a wholesale market for cars yet. Dealers do not make money per say of the trade in... they make the cash of of buying a wholesale car and selling it retail + discount. So we are in 2007...2008 Lci... the 2006 550 cars leases are not up yet.. Just wait for like a year... you will see a TON of 550's on the market and everyone will be talking about how cheep someone bought a 550 for. Oh and just remember..... the F10 will be out in like 2 years(2010) so that will change the 550 market even more.... For reference for the real car guys, watch what happens to model change years into a run... you will see a major change in the market... The average person cannot afford a 24 month lease on a 70k car. 3 year,12k miles w/ some cash down is not as hard to swallow as 24 month at 10k miles a year..... look at the real numbers like black book and not the fake Kelly Blue book and Edmund's fake evals


Just speaking from experience and not "I know all". I have purchased a lot of 3 year old cars and I have seen this trend for the last 5 years for high end cars and I have owned a few of them.... 3 years is the sweet spot for the flood of new model cars onto the market

 

I disagree somewhat...
3 years is a sweet spot for BMW because that leaves you with a car that still has a year on the warranty. 4 year old BMWs fall off significantly because of this. Also I have yet to see a previous model suffer drastic losses when the new model came out. For instance, never saw it on the 03 E39 and it has not occurred on my wife's 06 MDX.