[patpending]

MGR have leap-frogged SAAB and Lancia according to February figures printed in the German magazine auto motor + sport. Sales at 263 for the month are up 9.1% which is the good news. However, the bad news is that January was not a good month so sales to date this year are only 557 (down 6.5%)

More bad news: although MINI had an atrocious month (down 40%), MGR sales would still have to rise by some 7 (seven!) times to beat them! and I too have seen my first 2nd hand SV in that magazine!

pat

 

[andy]

Is that including the fleet of 100 ZR160?
If not, that would be really good news.

 

[Serge Jonkers]

These are Feb sales the 100 Zr''s counting for March. So good news!!!

 

[Sterling]

Hi,

well they sold 121 Rover 25/MG ZR in February 2005 here in Germany, 50 Rover 45/MG ZS, 68 Rover 75/MG ZT and 24 MG TF.

In one of Germans biggest sites for buying a car, mobile.de, we´ve got at the moment about 110 Rover cars with registration in 2005. I do not think that even more than 15 of the 68 Rover 75/MG ZT found a real buyer in February.

I also think that´s pretty OK so for Germany. Who should buy a MG/Rover for full list price? For an Rover 75 with 2,0 Litre Diesel engine I also get nearly a same fitted Audi A6, an in each case the new VW Passat. Both cars are technical up to date.

As far as I remember, the 75 was launchend quite one year later here in Germany as the BMW 3-Series (E46). By the time the BMW has been more and more developed. And the 75? Nearly nothing.

OK, the 75 is a nice car, but even not competitive with other german, french, italian, (englisch), cars.

Regards Sterling

 

[Serge Jonkers]

I do not agree with you!!

75 pretty and very nice build car!!

I give you some example's this are prices in Holland.

Rover 75 1.8 27990 euro
Audi A4 1.6 30590 euro
VW Passat old one 1.6 27305 euro
BMW 318 33200 euro

The Rover is just as good as these above mentioned cars!! I know which one I would choose!!

 

[Guest]

Just waiting for some of our "doomsayers" to tell us why this sales rise is actually bad news!

Where's Andy_Leeds when you want him?

 

[patpending]

thanks for your post Sterling.

of course the R75 was recently facelifted (evidently little effect in Germany) and I note that VW and B*W prices are going up in Germany: VW Golf Gti €20k, BMW 330i €36k! so MG are certainly competitive on price...

I was wondering what the website address is for "Kraftfahrtbundesamt" the equivalent of DVLA - it's even based on the edge of Germany, in the beautiful town of Flensburg, near the Danish border, like the DVLA is near Swansea and therefore arguably away from the centre of Britain - the address for "Kraftfahrtbundesamt" is of course www.kba.de - the file is so big I'm having trouble seeing it!

so you've saved me some trouble posting the breakdown, I've just been watching a very good programme about a man who built his own traction engine travelling around Britain, including to the rail-making steelworks at Workington (sadly, the man has since died and the works just closed)

those 100 sales will be very welcome! sadly, the monthly sales gap to Land-Rover is currently 140 (ie their sales are low too) and you would need to double MGR sales to get near Daihatsu!

pat

PS As I was closing the kba file, I found the "colour" breakdown. Only 1 of the 263 cars is yellow!

 

[rw9zt]

When I was in Frankfurt last year I was told that the German economy is in a rather depressed state at the moment and consumer confidence is very low. If this is still the case then a sharp rise in MGR sales is excellent news.

 

[Atmos]

*Start of doom and gloom*

Sterling just wrote the truth, we had a discussion about the German sales figures some weeks ago. MG Rover Germany works with the such called "Tageszulassung" (one day dealer pre-reg) in a very large scale. As Sterling has written - I have just checked it - on a single german internet car sales platform I found 140 MGs and Rovers with a 2005 registration. So the sales figures have a very limited expressiveness, that´s a problem.

It´s good if the figures are up, but it would be much, much better if those sales would be real sales.

*End of doom and gloom*

And I can´t resist:

Just waiting for some of our "doomsayers"...

Good way to lead a discussion. Here are not so many people from outside the UK active, why slating them if they write the truth about their home market? The result will be that they will not write again, maybe not the best solution. I think there a lot of people that really have a sympathy for MGR, but they can´t ignore obvious problems - and yes, I am one of those.

 

[jdcpuk]

We all know the MGR sales are falling and probaly will continue to so i cant see anypoint trying to defend the sales figuars at all after all 263 sales isnt good even for a contry that MGR isnt popular in, whether you say it is or not it plainly isnt. Hopefully though the sales for the UK in march will rise thanks to the adverts, if they dont they probally wont untill a new MGR car come out. (sorry but its just common sense, MGR arnt gonna sell untill they have a new car)

 

[Liam Olf]

if they dont they probally wont untill a new MGR car come out. (sorry but its just common sense, MGR arnt gonna sell untill they have a new car)

No need to justify yourself. Its the plain truth. MG-R long term future lies with this new model. If it comes out...

 

[Sterling]

Hi,

thank´s for my suppliers.

In February 2004 we had 240 registration for MG/Rover here in Germany. February 2005 263 cars. In January 2004 355 cars, in February 2005 only 294 cras. So, where´s your rise, in the background oft the 100 MG ZR for the ADAC this year?

Regards Sterling

PS: A little story: A member of a german MG website has written 2 weeks ago, he went to his local MG Rover dealer to order a new 2005 MG TF. But the dealer didn´t want to sell him a new 2005 car. He said his court is full of one day registered MG TF, and he has to sell these cars first.