BMW has a record month in March with sales up 4% year on year to 159,195 while first quarter deliveries rose 7% to a record 381,404 vehicles.

The increases were helped by gains in the US and China, the company said. “Sales of the BMW 3 series have contributed strongly to that growth and we will soon be expanding our highly successful range with the Gran Turismo. All in all, we are aiming for further growth in worldwide sales in 2013.”

Mini sales fell 2% to 231,763 in March while Q1 sales fell 3% to 66,154, attributed to a four-week closure of the Oxford plant for renovations at the beginning of the year.

Following records in 2012, Rolls-Royce sales were also down, by 16%, in the first quarter to 642. BMW claimed this was “within the company’s planning cycle” as the manufacturing plant underwent “rebalancing” amid preparations for starting production of the Wraith.