BMW’s slump in the North American market seems to be continuing after the October sales figures showed that the company had fared 9% poorer than last year.

BMW are coming on the back of a record 2015, but the company has been facing falling interest in various markets across the world. North American, though, has been a key presence for the company. The German luxury automaker has numerous production facilities dedicated to its models. The sports activity line-up of the X series is now only saving grace for the company.

BMW have revealed that the band could only sell 24,017 models in October compared to 29,439 a year ago. However, there has been a 21% increase in the sales of the BMW X3, which continues to remain as one of the popular models in the BMW lineup. Competitive prices coupled with the recent refresh mean that the BMW X3 still manages to attract a lot of customers while the same cannot be said of the other X range of vehicles like the BMW X4 and BMW X6. Up until now, these models have had a free run in the segment which has now been limited by the arrival of equivalent Mercedes vehicles.

The biggest benefactor in the X line-up was the BMW X1, which had a whopping 350% increase in sales compared to last October. The model came up with numbers of 2710 over last year, but this huge increase is likely to be down to the lack of inventories last year. BMW recently updated the X1 line-up with a brand-new design and features. Aside from the sales figures of BMW models not reading well, the company’s Mini brand also seems to be suffering with general lack of interest amongst North American buyers.

BMW are likely to blame the lower gas prices as a reason behind the interest in the larger SUVs rather than smaller sedans and hatchbacks. Even then, the company expects a major interest coming their way following the launch of their new 2017 BMW 5-series. The model may be a slight refresh in terms of exterior design, but it comes with an array of tech which clearly make it one of the best executive sedans in the market today. The BMW also saw the introduction of the latest 7-series only recently.

Since BMW have a fresh list of sedans in most markets across the world, the company expect a turnaround in the next few months.