As the U.S. auto industry roared toward a record-breaking finish in 2015, BMW, the top-selling luxury brand for three of the four previous years, was clinging to a 553-vehicle lead over Mercedes-Benz. Surging Lexus was threatening to leapfrog both.
But BMW wouldn't leave this race to chance. A Nov. 30 memo dangled $1,000 bonuses for each 2015 3-series vehicle dealerships sold to themselves as a "specialty demo" -- but the offer was valid that day only. The next round of industry sales reports, released the following afternoon, showed BMW's edge over Mercedes had quadrupled.
A month later, on the day automakers closed their books on the year, BMW made a stronger plea. It tripled the demo-vehicle offer to $3,000 on some models, including 2016s. "TODAY is the LAST OPPORTUNITY," it urged dealers in a memo obtained by Automotive News.
BMW ended 2015 in first place by 1,422 vehicles, the slimmest margin of victory since 2000. But when IHS Automotive collected registration data from each state, BMW's win appeared hollow. About 5,000 more new Lexuses had been registered last year than BMWs. On that basis, BMW had fallen to third...
Last year, BMW settled a suit alleging that dealerships sold 104,000 vehicles as new from 2006 through 2014, even though the dealerships previously had declared them as sold, starting the warranty clock before a consumer took possession. BMW did not admit wrongdoing but agreed to extend warranties and reimburse customers for some repairs...
While registrations tend to lag sales -- and the registration data exclude some heavy-duty pickups that the Detroit automakers report in their sales -- the gap of 286,832 vehicles in 2015 is the largest of any year in at least the past decade...
BMW's sales in 2015 exceeded registrations by 3.2 percent, compared to a 1.7 percent gap for the industry overall.
But BMW noted that its January registrations outpaced its sales by more than 7,000 vehicles, making up for much of the disparity from 2015.
The numbers support BMW's assertion that registrations can sometimes be slow, though it's also evidence of a last-minute sales frenzy as 2015 came to a close.
A former BMW employee said the company's sales reports can include thousands of punched cars to boost results in slow months. Many are classified internally as "Specialty 8" and might not be driven at all before being relisted as used.
Dealers who don't chase the "Specialty 8" bonuses are "uncompetitive," said the former employee, who requested anonymity while discussing internal company business.
On Jan. 4, the last day automakers could count sales toward 2015, BMW followed a morning bonus memo with an update later in the day saying dealers could collect more "Spec 8" incentives. The memos offered $3,000 on all 6-series cars and 2015 i8s.
The next day, BMW said 6-series sales soared 64 percent in December, while i8 sales more than quadrupled. The rest of the brand fell 20 percent. It was enough -- barely -- to claim the luxury crown for another year, even if some of the cars that helped secure the all-important victory still were waiting on a dealership lot for someone to actually buy them.
. 
