The German luxury carmaker BMW Group in the U.S. reported December sales of 27,600 vehicles, an increase of 16.9 percent from the 23,617 vehicles sold in the same month a year ago. For 2010, the BMW Group in the U.S. reported total sales of 265,757 vehicles, up 9.9 percent compared to the 241,727 vehicles sold in 2009.

As we've seen throughout the last six months of 2010, consumers in December clearly felt more confident about the future and showed it in their purchases, said Jim O'Donnell, President and CEO of BMW of North America, LLC. We really like the momentum we're getting as a result of this and along with our continual aggressive new model launches from BMW and MINI in 2011 we have real optimism we will continue growing our business with profitable sales in the new year.

Sales of BMW brand vehicles increased 15.7 percent in December for a total of 23,280 compared to 20,128 vehicles sold in December, 2009. For the year, BMW brand sales were up 12.0 percent to 220,113 vehicles compared to 196,502 vehicles sold in 2009, the carmaker said in a statement.

In December, best performing vehicles included the 5 Series, up 28.9 percent to 5,045 units; the 3 Series, up 12.3 percent to 10,067 units; the X5, up 12.1 percent to 3,939 units and the X6 up 52.8 percent to 859 units. Overall, the BMW SAV segment (X3, X5, X6) continued to show significant growth with sales up 26.9 percent for the year to 48,108 units compared to 37,925 in 2009, the statement added.

MINI USA reported sales of 4,320 automobiles in December, an increase of 23.8 percent from the 3,489 in December 2009, making it the most successful December ever for MINI in the USA. For the year 2010, MINI reported sales of 45,644, an increase of 0.9 percent from the 45,225 sold in 2009.