128 coupes more rare than 135s?

[dbtheo]

Surprising but true.

-In my region there only "15" 128 coupes that are modifiable & not sold. Country wide just 98

-135's? my region 50, country wide 331. The bulk of which is out west and down south with the much larger centers.


so both cars pretty rare, but the 128 more so... never would have thunk it.

Dave

edit: there are also 62 sulev 128s, those tend to be region specific though

[dbtheo]

same for the verts

128 verts: 230 country wide
135 verts: 754

[lib]

It will probably shift in the 128's favor over time.

Right now there aren't many people that know about the car. The masses haven't seen it on the street, haven't seen much advertising and probably haven't been to a BMW dealer in the last 2 weeks.

The majority of the people buying it right now are probably enthusiasts that have known about it for at least a few months. Most of those people want the 135i.

In a year or two everyone will know it exists and there will be a lot more people randomly walking in off the street to buy a 128.

It'll definitely be interesting to see the final number of each model sold in the first year and the future plans for total yearly production. The 1's will probably always be rarer than 3's.

Edit:

By "modifiable & not sold" I'm assuming you mean produced cars sitting on lots? If that's the case it seems like that's primarily a count of the dealer demos.

[dbtheo]

I think you are missing my point. orginally many thought 135 would be produced in the smallest numbers. Instead it appears that the 128i has the smaller productions numbers.

[ScottyGams]

128i owners are not willing to pay MSRP with a bad apr...

the whole point of the car is to save money... give it a couple months

[lib]

No, that's exactly the point I was agreeing with.

At this point it isn't surprising. The car has only been around for 3 weeks. They're still producing cars for people that pre-ordered or ordered extremely early.

The type of people that preorder a car before it's out are much more likely to gravitate towards the 135i over the 128i.

For now the 135i is more common than the 128i. In time that may change.

[dbtheo]

Originally Posted by ScottyGams

the whole point of the car is to save money

disagree, not true, atleast from what I have seen. It's about size. The majority of my buyers are choosing it (all 1ers) because they like the size

[dbtheo]

Originally Posted by lib

They're still producing cars for people that pre-ordered or ordered extremely early.

actually, the above numbers reflect vehicles NOT sold yet. These are numbers now that pre-orders have already been ordered

[dbtheo]

Originally Posted by lib

By "modifiable & not sold" I'm assuming you mean produced cars sitting on lots? If that's the case it seems like that's primarily a count of the dealer demos.

no, these cars have not yet been built. Modifiable means a client can still spec the car out to his/her preference.

[dbtheo]

for cars "sitting" on lots

117 are 128 coupes

173 are 135 coupes


but that figure is misleading, because (as LIB stated) most of those are "launch" cars. For example, at my center, with the exception of 2 verts, all my instock 1's are launch cars.

[dclee1]

Interesting numbers, dbtheo...I wonder if a greater percentage of 1er owners are represented on this board than other models, given the enthusiast base of the car?

[dbtheo]

Originally Posted by dclee1

Interesting numbers, dbtheo...I wonder if a greater percentage of 1er owners are represented on this board than other models, given the enthusiast base of the car?

perhaps the 135 yes, but on average I would personally guess no. I would give that title to something more specific like M owners, in particluar Z4M's

[lib]

Originally Posted by dbtheo

no, these cars have not yet been built. Modifiable means a client can still spec the car out to his/her preference.

At first I thought you were talking production slots remaining for the '08 model year but that number seemed awfully low for both models.

If they're sticking to 10,000 units in the US this year that would mean over 8600 of them were already sold. Definitely possible but a much higher number than we've been lead to believe.

[dbtheo]

Originally Posted by lib

At first I thought you were talking production slots remaining for the '08 model year but that number seemed awfully low for both models.

If they're sticking to 10,000 units in the US this year that would mean over 8600 of them were already sold. Definitely possible but a much higher number than we've been lead to believe.

see this thread for sales info:http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6521

[lib]

Yep. That's the thread that prompted my "much higher number than we've been lead to believe" comment.

Even if we assume they sold twice as many 1's in the 3rd week of the 3 weeks its been out (compared to week 1 or 2) that would still only be ~3000 units sold YTD. That count of 1s available for modification accounts for another ~1500. Then there's the ~280 sitting on lots.

Where'd the other 5000 go? Or are they really only selling about 5k in the states this year?

[dbtheo]

Originally Posted by lib

Yep. That's the thread that prompted my "much higher number than we've been lead to believe" comment.

Even if we assume they sold twice as many 1's in the 3rd week it's been out that would still only be ~3000 units sold YTD. That count of 1s available for modification accounts for another ~1500. Then there's the ~280 sitting on lots.

Where'd the other 5000 go? Or are they really only selling about 5k in the states this year?

this year is probably less, remember there has really only been 1 full month of sales so far. 2009 models will presumably be out before the end od 2008. Also the "launch" cars don't count toward normal allocation I believe.

[TagMan]

Interesting question. But the answer will come over time. It's too early to know how the sales ratio will pan out between the 128i and the 135i in the long run.

The honeymoon period is unique... not necessarily like the marriage. (ha!)

On a different thread, I mentioned that the color distribution will likely shift as well... eventually transition itself from the initial color selections into the more typical BMW color ratios.

But, if this "year one of the 1" truly ends up being special, then the 128i might very well be the rarer "1"... at least for the '08 model year.

[spudw]

It's all about the model launch hysteria. BMW have been very careful to place emphasis on the 135i. The 128i has been in the 135i's shadow I suspect because they want the emphasis the 1er as a serious performance model and not as an 'entry-level BMW'. So far I'd say they have been successful. In fact, there have been virtually no photos of the 128i other than recently-added owners' photos.

When the market becomes more aware of the 1 Series and the hoards find out they can buy a car 'that looks just like the 135i' that still offers serious performance, the 128i will take off. For the common buyer, the 128i offers more than enough. 135i will be the car for the VERY SERIOUS enthusiast. The 128i will be the car for enthusiasts, but over time also for the vast majority of the 1 Series market.

By MY2009, I bet the proportion of 128i to 135i will be inversed.

[TagMan]

If you are trying to wager on the future, I would take a peek at the ratio within the 3-Series, and expect that it might possibly provide a hint and indication as to what we could expect within the 1-Series.

[ManMachine]

Once BMW satisfy the enthusiasts, it will built on that and satisfy the masses - teenage girls, grandpas, etc. Expect most 128i with automatics.

[Tom K.]

Originally Posted by TagMan

If you are trying to wager on the future, I would take a peek at the ratio within the 3-Series, and expect that it might possibly provide a hint and indication as to what we could expect within the 1-Series.

If you look at only the 3 Series 2 doors, I'd agree. But the more numerous sedans & wagons represent a different type of buyer (that BMW doesn't seem interested in) than the 1 series.

Tom