BMW U.S. vehicle sales drop 22 percent in January

[regfootball]

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BMW U.S. vehicle sales drop 22 percent in January

Automotive News | February 5, 2008 - 3:00 am EST

FRANKFURT (Reuters) -- German carmaker BMW said group vehicle sales fell 22 percent to 16,935 in the United States in January but said it expected retail sales there to rise slightly in 2008 compared to last year. "Sales were impacted by lower than normal inventory levels due to a very strong retail performance in December and high demand for all-wheel drive models," BMW of North America said in a statement on Monday.

BMW brand sales were down 26.7 percent to 14,475 vehicles, compared to 19,761 vehicles sold during January 2007, BMW said.

[A Horse With No Name]

The economy is falling on its face. Luxury cars will be one of the first things to go.

Chris

[Drew Dowdell]

Falling housing market means fewer BMWs.

[Intrepidation]

My heart bleeds for them.

[Z-06]

Falling housing market means fewer BMWs.

Because Suzy McMansion will not be able to afford one?

[Drew Dowdell]

Because Suzy McMansion will not be able to afford one?

Because Suzy McMansion got a 110% LTV second mortgage to pay off her maxed out Vicky Secrets/Pottery Barn/Macy's/Express credit cards.... which she promptly maxed out again.

[A Horse With No Name]

Not to brag...but I'm just a lower middle class Electrician/Tlecommunications worker and my banker says that I am in better shape than 95% of Americans. He says that such a huge majority of people have over-leveraged themselves it will be a long time before we are out of the woods. In his exact words "seven out of every ten people I see on the other side of my desk I just can't help because they are too far in debt to ever get out."

Scary to think about where we are headed long term. Suzy McMansion may have just sold us up the river, given the amount of our debt that is now held my middle eastern or asian nations.

Chris

[Z-06]

The fact that Nation's now second largest bank (Citi) was bailed out by Middle Easterners and Chinese tells you something.

None of these politicians have balls to tell people that you are the ones who put us in this mess including us. It was not nature or destiny which put America in deep doo-doo it is in now.

[Drew Dowdell]

I am quickly moving myself to be debt free except for property mortgages. I'm not playing the credit game any longer.

[Satty]

I just bought a new 3er, got a $1000 cash advance on 4 of my credit cards for a decent down payment, going to get cash advances on the other 6 to make my payments.

[A Horse With No Name]

This is smart, because real estate and hard assets will be amoung the few things to hold their value in the hard times ahead.

See you bought a 96 Roadmaster Estate. Little bit of jealousy here, I always liked the looks of those. Almost bought one down in North Carolina right before I bought my GMC Safari van and I've kicked myself ever since for not buying it.

Good luck with your new (old) car. Staying out of debt kicks ass. As soon as my tax return gets here I am going to be debt free other than a small car loan and my home mortgage. Glad to see you are doing the same.

Chris

[A Horse With No Name]

I just bought a new 3er, got a $1000 cash advance on 4 of my credit cards for a decent down payment, going to get cash advances on the other 6 to make my payments.

You laugh, but my wife works for a local community college (Columbus State University). Lots of 20 year olds are graduating with an associates 50 Grand in debt for school and expenses. They then go to Ohio State or Kent state or Ohio Dominican or wherever and put themselves another 50 grand in debt to get a 4 year degree.

The daughter of a good friend of mine just graduated from Wright State in Dayton 65k in debt for school alone. These people then borrow money for a car and clothes and meals out and then...

I'd hate to see how far in debt Suzie McMansion is by comparison.

Chris

[regfootball]

the white elephant in the room is that over the bush era (not blaming, just merely coinciding) real wages have declined while expenses and costs for taxes, housing, utilities, food, fuel, health care, education etc. have gone up exponentially.

the only way out of the mess is for people's wages to go up at a faster rate while prices stay level. if that happens, people won't have to default on their homes, and maybe they can cut away at their debts.

the 10% chosen ones in this country are piling on the wages, especially if mommy and daddy are super earners, but in single income or dual not so great wage earner households, they have no power to keep up with prices. the wage inequity in this country is our biggest problem.

[Drew Dowdell]

This is smart, because real estate and hard assets will be amoung the few things to hold their value in the hard times ahead.

See you bought a 96 Roadmaster Estate. Little bit of jealousy here, I always liked the looks of those. Almost bought one down in North Carolina right before I bought my GMC Safari van and I've kicked myself ever since for not buying it.

Good luck with your new (old) car. Staying out of debt kicks ass. As soon as my tax return gets here I am going to be debt free other than a small car loan and my home mortgage. Glad to see you are doing the same.

Chris

I didn't buy. I'm just borrowing the Roadmaster long term till I leave for Germany. My friend Dominic has something like 7 cars, so he's letting me take the beat up Roady Wagon.

[intrigued]

My family has been feeling it too but then I take a step back and look at the situation Im going to be in and dont feel so bad. I'll have 23k in debt for two degrees (I'm double majored in English and journalsim) and I'm taking the 5 year plan (I took a semester off and I dropped a few classes along the way) from a small liberalarts college that is going on 27k a year without living expenses. Admittedly I could have almost no debt if I hadnt made some bad spending choices but I kept it down pretty well for the most part.

What I'm worrying bout is what is college going to cost when my kids get there in nother 25 or years? A college degree doesn't get you what it used to in the job market. It's more like having a highschool diploma 30 years ago. I'm much more valuable because I have 3+ years of experience in heavy litigation paralegal work for a respected NY lawfirm. What I'm not looking forward to is that I will be incurring some serious debt if I go to lawschool which I plan to do. I figure I'll take about two years off afte college, pay off all my debt and get a new car while saving up livingmoey so I only have to take ot loans for law school tuition. That will probably leave me in 70k or so debt still but at least I'll hve a decent job to pay that down.

My folks and my brother's family along with myself were getting really worried about our financial situation so we totalled up all our debt recently. (My folks and my brother his wife and kids all live togther in a McMansion that actually makes efficent use of the rooms inside of it rather than having ike 4 bedrooms in a 5000 sqft house. We live kind of like a comune.)

Mortgage = 475k House is worth 1.4 mil so there is plenty of equity in it at least.

Car loan = 30k outstanding for 06 mstang and vue and a 315 a month lease payment on the aura xr

CC debt = 7k

My debt = 23k 22k school loans and 1k CC

For the most part we've managed to keep the debts from going up but cost of living is keeping us from saving any real money. My dad has a decent retirment IRA set up that even now would let him get about 60k a year in annuity but my brother has nothing except a penson plan. Its so hard to get ahead, especially in heavy urban and suburban areas near the coasts with realestate and such being what it is. Getting a downpayment for a house is getting to be impossible. I am so not looking forward to the real world financially. My brother nd my dad would not even remotley be able to live like they do if they didn't combine resources.

[Intrepidation]

I probably owe about $1,000 or so in medical expenses

My girlfriend owes $1,100-$2,000

It's not horrible but until we've got meaningful income we can't pay it off...$500 a month in car insurance+$400 in misc. bills on crappy jobs makes that hard.

My school debt is something to the tune of $40,000

The irony of college is that the entire point of it is to get a higher education so you get get a career that pays well enough so you can live a comfortable life...but as soon as you get out you're up to your neck in debt...mostly from the very institution went went to to be able to obtain a higher paying job. With the job market the way it is there's not even a guarantee that you'll get one right out of college, or anytime soon after.

[ZL-1]

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GMI?!??! Ooohhh the blasphemy!