Friday, Mar 13, 2009
X5 maker suffers downturn. Please, no sniggering.
BBC: BMW's profits tumble nearly 90%
BMW's net profits tumbled nearly 90% to 330m euros ($423m; £306m) last year, as the global economy weakened and reduced demand for cars. Earnings were hit by 2.4bn euros of exceptional costs linked to bad debts, personnel costs and provisions to cover risks on used car markets. Separately, the European Investment Bank made a 400m euros loan to BMW as part of a wider industry package.
Posted by charlie brooker @ 04:10 AM (673 views) Add Comment
23 Comments
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1. flashman said...
charlie brooker: The only person I’m sniggering at is you. Why would anyone snigger because a company makes less profit and has to therefore lay people off? I presume you are sniggering because BMW makes what you consider to be elitist cars? Your tag line sums up everything that has gone wrong with this country.
2. str 2007 said...
Meeooow Charlie Brooker
Can't you afford and X5.
Fact of the matter is BMW make the most fuel efficient 4x4 x far ! Further according to this report their profit was 330 million euros, about 1/2 what M&S used to make putting jumpers on shelves.
I think it's quite frightening that probably the best engineering organisation in the World is suffering so badly. Just imagine how the rest will do.
For reference I'm not an engineer or an X5 owner, but I can afford one and have no problem with X5 owners, my gripe rests with bad and slow drivers. In my opinion the avergage X5 driver isn't a bad driver.
3. inbreda said...
I can afford an X5, but I agree with Mr Brooker. That car is the favoured vehicle of BTL entrepreneurs. It is big, arrogant and polluting and driven by people who selfishly do not care about pollution - "someone else can clear that up, I'm far too important". I wouldn't be seen dead in one of them. Really, I would rather walk. Pull the rug from the BTLers and of course sales of these characterless moron-pods will fall. BMW should have chiosen its customer base a bit more wisely. There are jobs going in every industry, and it is always a shame - but as we all know it was entirely avoidable. Hopefully these people will be re-employed in a more productive and sensible role.
4. uncle tom said...
Profits may be down 90%, but they are still making a profit - must make the likes of GM awfully envious...
5. letthemfall said...
I think it's fair to say that the bigger 4x4s are more polluting than the majority of other cars. Interesting that they have become so popular despite the warnings about climate change, their expense and their unsuitability for congested urban roads.
BMWs are undoubtedly well made cars, but the desire to own 4x4s (of all makes) does seem representative of the consumerist culture which has given rise to the economic problems we have now.
As for the average X5 driver not being a bad one, what is so above average about their average? No doubt all here are above average drivers.
6. This comment has been removed as it was found to be in breach of our Blog Policies.
7. timmy t said...
I do have an X5 - Thanks Flashman! If you've never had a Tommy Tank in your life then feel free to call whoever you like a tosser. If you have, then you are a tosser too... I bought it because I love driving - its a good car and enjoyable to drive. Some people enjoy owning a big house, others enjoy going abroad on holiday. Some have boats, some have their own planes, some have cars they race around tracks. All of these things are polluting but people still do them.
8. Stu T said...
I had a 4.41 X5, but decided to sell to buy a house. Losing MUCH less money on my new investment :-)
Plus I lose the stigma of a WAGs shopping car!
9. charlie brooker said...
Actually I love BMW. Had a 520i and it was great.
The sniggering comment was actually a side swipe at the BTL MEW brigade who so ostentatiously flaunted their status symbols acquired through such morally or financially dubious means.
PS Note to STR2007 : Reading between your typos, yes I can afford an X5 and a lot more too. Does everything in your world have to come down to who's got the biggest doo-dah?
It is lamentable to see so many becoming innocent casualties of other people's greed and recklessness. If only financial engineers had displayed the same care and excellence as BMW mechanical engineers.
10. flashman said...
timmy t: I have indeed pulled one off in the most unusual places. I wasn't being serious about your car. I couldn't care less what anyone drives. I used to be very keen on cars and in my younger days have owned several models that would seriously qualify for the tosser epithet
11. str 2007 said...
charlie brooker
If your swipe was at BTLers say so, I'm with Timmy T. If you use a plane to go on holiday shut the f*** up about X5's etc. If you don't then carry on if it pleases you.
My personal gripe with most 4x4 bashers is they use the environmental issues as their main arguement but then don't think twice about hopping on a plane. Totally hypocritical.
BTW I don't recall mentioning doo dahs.
12. flashman said...
charlie: Many years ago I had a BMW 850. I was on a Brittany ferries crossing when there was an announcement that an alarm had gone off on a BMW 850. I got up to go down stairs to sort it, when someone shouted "what a wa*ker" and everyone laughed. It was about 15 years ago but the scars are still deep. You reminded me of my pain. Please accept my apologies.
13. str 2007 said...
Flashman
You should've had the 911. Still the 911 didn't hand you your seat belt did it ! LOL
Charlie
Don't take any offence will you.
14. charlie brooker said...
@flashman - no worries. I was in Liverpool once - at a filling station near Anfield on a dark winters evening. Went to pay for the petrol and by the time I got back to the car some scrote had used his finger to doodle some vandalism into the layer of dirt on the bonnet. Nice.On another occasion I was driving my 5 series into an out-of-town shopping centre near Bournemouth. I was approaching one of those flush mini roundabouts when an X5 driver coming the other way. She decided might trumped the rules of the road so very nearly took the front end of my car off - and would have done had I not breaked sharply. From the looks of her she was newly MEWed and worth it. Its not the car itself thats the problem - its a great car - its some of the crowd it attracts; greedy, arrogant and on the war path.
@str2007 - Calm down, calm down. You've got completely the wrong end of the stick. My complaint is not with BMW or X5s themselves but with social climbing BTL/MEW supremacists who caused such immense offence thinking their big new cars suddenly made them a cut above the rest of us.
BMW make great cars but their is also sadly a nasty stereotype associated with the brand. Using offensive threatening remarks the way you have, you wouldn't be one of the them, would you?
15. timmy t said...
Flashman - "I have indeed pulled one off in the most unusual places" - did you get your name by pulling one off in your 850?
16. timmy t said...
Volvo drivers - now there's a bunch of folk which deserve everything they get thrown at them. They will be the first to tell you that they are the safest cars on the road - they fail to see the irony in the fact that they only need cars that safe because of the way they drive!
17. matt_the_hat said...
I'm more a Mercedes man myself, by little black coupe 2 seater with tiptronic gear change beats any sports car round town (if you include parking time)....
The 700cc engine also saves the plannet even though I don't believe in that carbon crap (although I would support these open cast type schemes which extract oil from sand)
18. matt_the_hat said...
Oh and I can't afford to even buy the space saving spare wheel of a BMW but who gives a 5h1t anyway when your stuck in the never ending traffic jam know as the UK
19. str 2007 said...
Charlie
No I'm not and it was you that started talking about doo dahs. The 'f' word has I'm afraid become perfectly acceptable language in this country. Just look at Gordon Ramsay and he got ecorated. Don't see many medals on Ray Meers chest.
Maybe the Quenns got an X5.... LOL
timmy t
You must ride a motorbike.
Matt the hat
SMART answer !
20. str 2007 said...
another typo
sorry that should have been decorated not ecorated.
21. str 2007 said...
D'oh
Queen not Quenn
22. str 2007 said...
Sorry I wouldn't normally correct but Charlie spotted I put 'and' instead of 'an' earlier !
23. crash bandicoot said...
A guy at work used to have a 3 series company car. He used to hate taking it for a service because it was difficult to get near to the place - there always seemed to be loads of semi-abandoned BMW's littering the pavements and verges outside the dealership. Obviously their owners were far too important to waste time parking properly.