Audi, BMW and Daimler unveiled contrastingly weak sales figures on June 8 as relatively good news was reported for German industry in general.

BMW said sales of its brands, which include Mini and Rolls-Royce, shed 18.3% in May on a 12-month basis, a figure that was nonetheless better than April's drop of 24%.

Daimler's Mercedes-Benz division said May sales were off by 12.4%, but that was almost half the loss of nearly 24% reported in April.

Audi limited its losses to 6.1% in May compared with the same month a year earlier.

Volkswagen's high-end auto brand continued to fare better than its rivals, but the result was still a deterioration from Audi's fall of 5.6% in April.

For the first five months of 2009, BMW delivered 487,906 vehicles, or 21.1 % fewer than in the same period of 2008.

Mercedes-Benz sold 433,100 cars, which was also a drop of 21.1%.

Audi sold 374,350 cars, for a more modest decline of 12.1%.

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