FRANKFURT -- Strong sales of its new 3-series cars helped BMW boost group vehicle deliveries by 13.8 percent in February to 94,751 units, the world's biggest premium carmaker said on Tuesday.

Deliveries at its core BMW brand rose 18.5 percent to 82,507 units, while those of its Mini brand fell 10.0 percent to 12,214 cars amid bottlenecks caused by a temporary production halt at its plant in Oxford, England, for expansion work.

Sales of the revamped BMW 3 series surged 53.5 percent in the first two months of the year to 69,232 units, including 46,903 of the 3-Series saloon that was rolled out in early March 2005.

Sales of the wagon version -- launched last September -- gained 69.1 percent to 15,622 cars.

Powered by the revamped 3-series sedan, its most popular model by far, the Munich-based company has been breaking one sales record after another and has overtaken archrival DaimlerChrysler's Mercedes Car Group.

"In 2005 we were the world's most successful supplier of premium automobiles and in the first two months of 2006 we have further increased our lead over our competitors. This is a good basis from which to defend our leadership position this year," sales and marketing head Michael Ganal said in a statement.

CEO Helmut Panke said in January that the group aims to post another record in deliveries this year, although BMW expects to build up to 10 percent fewer Minis due to retooling at the Oxford plant.

In 2005, BMW group vehicle sales increased 9.9 percent to nearly 1.33 million units.

Mercedes Car Group reported on Monday, March 6, that unit sales swelled 16 percent in February to 83,800 vehicles as turnover at its core Mercedes-Benz brand jumped 23.1 percent, offsetting a drop of nearly 26 percent at its Smart small car unit.

Volkswagen's premium Audi brand continues to generate strong growth, helped by solid demand in Asia and hot models such as the A6 Avant estate.

Audi's February sales rose 15.9 percent to 63,500 vehicles even before this month's launch of the Audi Q7 SUV.