BMW to Open Largest Showroom Worldwide in Abu Dhabi

BMW Group has opened the world’s largest showroom for BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and BMW motorcycles in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi Motors, the BMW Group’s long-standing importer for the region, has invested around AED 300 million (approx. 62 million euros) in the new 35,000-square-metre showroom over its three-year construction.
The facility features separate showrooms and sales areas for the BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce cars, and for BMW motorcycles, with more than 70 automobiles and 10 motorcycles on permanent display. The dealership also has an extensive range of newer pre-owned vehicles as well as a service area that will be able to perform maintenance on up to 120 vehicles simultaneously. More than 450 staff members will work at the facility.

“The Middle East is an important region for the BMW Group. We sold more vehicles here in 2011 than ever before. There is tremendous future growth potential in many countries in this region and in the United Arab Emirates in particular.” said BMW Ian Robertson, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, during the opening ceremony.

The BMW Group achieved a new sales record in the Middle East in 2011. A total of 18,657 BMW and MINI brand vehicles were sold last year in the region’s 14 import markets – an increase of more than nine per cent year-on-year. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) accounted for more than 47 per cent of deliveries, with Abu Dhabi and Dubai the largest markets.

The best-selling vehicles in the region in 2011 were large model series such as the BMW 7 Series with 4,511 vehicles delivered to customers, the 5 Series (4,286 units), the X5 (2,620 sales), the X6 (2,510 deliveries) and the 3-Series (2,033 cars). In 2011 the Middle East was the third biggest market worldwide for the BMW 7 Series following China and the United States of America.

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Mini drums up yet another special edition, the Highgate

We are more used to seeing this in the six-figure realm of the automotive world: a carmaker putting out one special edition after another. But both Mini and UK buyers love their specializations, so Mini has provided another one called the Highgate. It follows the Baker Street and Baywater editions as the new hotness for 2012.

This one will be for the Cooper convertible (Baker Street and Bayswater were for the hardtops). The standard treatment is an Iced Chocolate exterior coat with Truffle stripes on the hood and a Silvertouched Truffle roof, but metallic options in Midnight Black and White Silver are also available.

Insid,e Dark Truffle Lounge Leather seats with blue piping meet a host of standard features such as Mini's cold-weather and Chrome Line Interior packages. It rides on 17-inch Double Cross wheels and gets a range of four engine options from that in the 122-horsepower Cooper to the 143-horsepower motor from the Cooper SD.

Prices start at £21,300 ($33,693 U.S., not that we'd ever get it here) on-the-road for the manual-transmission Cooper Highgate Convertible, to £26,050 ($41,206 U.S.) OTR for the Cooper SD Highgate Convertible with an auto. More information is in the press release after the jump and plenty of eye candy in the gallery of high-res photos.

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