Media post: BMW 3 Series hits best European ranking in 12 years

BMW 3 Series

Boosted by the 6th generation now in full gear, the BMW 3 Series sold 201,224 units in the whole of Europe over the Full Year 2013, earning it a 9th position overall. As I mentioned in my Europe Full Year 2013 Report, this is the first time the 3 Series finishes the year inside the European Top 10 since 2008. But let’s have a look further down to the track to really take stock of this performance. In fact, the 3 Series had not ranked that high in Europe since all the way back to  2001 when it was the 8th best-selling model on the continent.

Volume-wise, as you know if you are a regular BestSellingCarsBlog reader, the main word in Europe right now is frag-men-ta-tion! So absolutely all models see their volume decrease as a long-term trend, which is not to say they are any less successful. It’s just that there are more and more models available each year in Europe and as a logical result, volumes per model decrease. Case in point with the 3 Series which has now been split between 3 Series and 4 Series for the first time in the nameplate’s 38 year career.

However in spite of that, 2013 is the first year the 3 Series is back above 200,000 annual European sales since 2009. Prior to that, it spent 18 consecutive years at 200,000+ units per year, even crossing the 300,000 mark for 3 years in a row between 2000 and 2002, something only the VW Golf has managed in 2013! Different times indeed. Another record the BMW 3 Series has broken in 2013 is its monthly ranking, reaching #4 in August.

BMW 3 Series sales 1991-2013: