The manufacturer has said it is not going to renew the contracts of around 17 of its 150 UK dealers and about 30 of its 320 dealer in Germany.

While BMW UK would not comment on the development, a spokesman from the carmaker's headquarters in Munich said it was not major news.

“This is not an extraordinary thing,” he said. “We're doing this kind of thing continuously as the dealer network is developing.

“There's not an overall plan for cuts in the dealer network worldwide or anything like that – it just depends on the market.”

BMW awarded its dealers five-year contracts in 2003, which will be up for renewal at the end of September.

News of the cuts follows the news that BMW took a €236m (£186m) hit in increased bank charges in the first quarter of 2008 due to the impact of the international credit crunch.