BMW North America To Invest $300 Million For New Facilities

[JoshCalkins]

Given the current condition of the auto market, the decision of BMW of North America to invest $300 million to upgrade their existing facilities and dealerships, and to open new ones, may seem an odd choice. However, while sales have fallen on new vehicles in the past few months, the automaker has seen a big rise in the sales of used and pre-owned vehicles, up 16.4% since 2007.

Since 2000, BMW has invested $2.2 billion in North American operations, and they see even more opportunities on the horizon. A lot of the new investment will be focused on making used and pre-owned vehicles more available to buyers, and also to attract buyers wary of buying used vehicles. Representatives of BMW of North America stated that the company currently has the largest used vehicles program on the continent of any premium brand, and they want to keep that edge. In 2008, there were 104,000 sales of Certified Pre-Owned BMW vehicles, and that number is likely to increase as current economic conditions make new-car buyers more likely to try a Certified Pre-Owned vehicle instead.