BMW 5-Series Gran Turismo sales disappoint, CEO regrets getting rid of 5 wagon

Who out there thought that BMW’s 5-Series Gran Turismo was a bad idea? Well, apparently BMW of North America CEO Jim O’Donnell also feels the same – and by same we mean what many of you out there are thinking; that the quirky looking 5-Series Gran Turismo should have never come to life.

Okay let’s be clear here, O’Donnell really doesn’t think that about the 5-Series Gran Turismo, however he is regretting BMW North America’s decision to stop selling the 5-Series station wagon in the United States.

So far, sales of the BMW 5-Series Gran Turismo have been disappointing. Last year, BMW stopped selling the 5-Series station wagon, in hopes that those customers would go over to the 5-Series Gran Turismo.

“The disappointment I have is that I thought a lot of our 5-series station wagon customers would go with the GT,” O’Donnell says. “In point of fact, that is not happening. We have lost those customers to the competition — mainly to Mercedes-Benz. The GT has attracted 7- and 5-series customers and conquests, but not the station wagon customer we had hoped.”

In 2010, BMW sold 2,848 units of the 5-Series Gran Turismo. During the first four months of 2011, BMW sold just 720 unit of the ‘5-Series station wagon’ replacement. When the model initially made its debut, BMW had targeted annual sales of 4,000 to 8,000 units.

So will BMW bring back the 5-Series wagon? Not yet.

“It’s in the back of my mind,” he says. “When we do the next generation, maybe we should.”

– By: Roman Bronfenbrener

Source: Automotive News