Business Notes

Can a car manufacturer sell too many cars? Lisa Stewart thinks so. Her $10 million lawsuit against BMW claims that the German automaker didn't keep its promise to limit the U.S. sales of its 1988 model M5 sedan to 500 cars. As a result, Stewart contends, the five-cylinder autos -- first introduced at $43,500 and later sold for $47,500 -- have failed to appreciate in value. Stewart, of Glen Ellyn, Ill., could be joined by other disgruntled M5 owners in the class-action suit, which alleges that BMW nearly tripled the number of cars in the edition. A BMW brochure stated that "only a fortunate few discriminating buyers will have the opportunity to own an M5. Production and distribution is limited to 500 editions." BMW denies misleading its customers. "We always represented the car as being available in limited quantities, and in fact it was," says spokesman Tom McGurn. "Somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,200 and 1,300 were imported over a several-year period. In a car market of 11 million or so, that is indeed a limited edition."