BMW dealers asking for more of the newly launched 2017 BMW 5 Series cars. They say they don’t have enough of the product. It’s not like they beg for more, but since there are a lot of interested buyers they really need more supply.
At the end of March, BMW had just 200 unsold sedans in dealer inventory. They began arriving at dealerships on mid-February. Customers had preordered about about 2,000. Production and deliveries have ramped up since the end of March, a BMW spokesman said. Dealers on average should have a two- to three-week supply now during the launch. For the previous-generation version, incentives soared to an average of $11,005 per car in January. The nameplate’s incentives fell in February and March as old vehicles were cleared out. The average incentive in March was $6,284. Dealers still have some old vehicles on their lots, but the nationwide supply was down to about 100 vehicles by late April, the company said.
U.S. sales of the 5 series have dropped steadily since peaking at 56,863 in 2013. In 2016, BMW sold 32,408, down 27 percent from a year earlier. This year through March, the company sold 6,641 5 series, down 32 percent through the sell-down period.
