BMW sales drop in March, sees some brighter signs

FRANKFURT: German luxury car maker BMW reported on Tuesday a sharp drop in March sales but pointed to encouraging signs in the United States and Germany, its two biggest markets.

BMW said it sold 126,375 vehicles last month, a drop of 17.2 percent from March 2008. Sales of the BMW and Mini brands fell 17 percent and 18.5 percent, respectively.

"We have observed some encouraging signs in important markets like the United States and Germany but it is too early to speak of a turnaround in the trend at a global level," sales director Ian Robertson said in a statement.

US sales fell by less than the market as a whole while in Germany the drop was limited to 1.1 percent owing to rising deliveries of Minis and its new convertible model.

In emerging markets such as China, India and Brazil, BMW sales gained between 12 and 15 percent.

For the first quarter of 2009 as a whole, sales at the entire BMW group were down 21.1 percent to 277,264 vehicles.