Sales of the Cowley-built fell sharply again in April, new figures have revealed.

A total of 17,320 cars were delivered to customers worldwide, a drop of 19.3 per cent on the same month last year.

For the first four months of the year 60,912 cars were sold, down 23.6 per cent on 2008.

But the annual rate of decline is showing signs of slowing down —in February it stood at 30.8 per cent below the 2008 figure.

BMW bosses have reported a recent uplift in orders helped by the introduction of the new Convertible model and the result of a union ballot on the possibility of extra weekend working will be revealed on Monday.

Earlier this week, BMW unveiled a £175m pre-tax loss for the first three months of the year which reversed a £568m pre-tax profit achieved in 2008.