Anyone else there with a car configured like mine, BMW won't tell me :(

[GuidoK]

Yes, you're right. But not sure how the VIN number helps. VIN tells a bunch of things but color as far as I understand the 17 digits is not one of them.

The last 7 digits of the vin tell everything about the car.
What colour, what interior, what engine, what gearbox what hifi system, what satnav, what electrics, what trim etc etc.
With your posted vin I know for instance you have satnav professional and a heated steering wheel (amongst others)
Its in the BMW vin database. Its only not reverse engineered (not searchable), so only putting in the vin will give this data.
Nobody took the efford to hack that database yet (afaik). So hire an 17 year old asian kid thats a guru in SQL....
There are dozens of sites that can decode your vin:
https://www.google.nl/search?q=bmw+vin+decoder
Probably all linking to the same database input. So sadly none is reverse searchable.
So its either punching in all vin codes (for the e89 they're luckily mostly grouped, but USA is a different group than ECE), or hire that 17 year old asian hacker kid....

There was a time when driving a "sports car" said something about the owner.

You're talking about an era that porsche only made sportscars Thats pre 2002 so at least 15 years ago
Now they're mainly (in numbers) a VAG platform rebrander.

[ferry]

I appreciate your opinion. Are you a collector? Do you realize how many cars were not "popular" in their day but later went on to become collectible? Did you know for many years nobody wanted those old red cars, you know, like an old 250 Ferrari GTO. There was a time when you could barely give a Tucker away and you could buy a 275 four cam Ferrari for $6k. You know what they sell for today?

I am a collector and there are certain cars that have intrinsic value.

It's a Z4, not a Zonda. Get over yourself. Comparing it to a 250 GTO (of which there are 39, just to sate your desire for production numbers) is at best misguided.

There are so many millions of spec combinations that many people could sit and wait months for another car of the exact same spec to come up. This information you seek may have a small impact on the value of your vehicle but the market determines what is collectable.

For what it's worth, I don't see the E89 assuming any kind of classic status. And if it were to do so it wouldn't be for about 20 years. (Will cars have an inherent value in 20 years time when the legislative bodies are wound up, taxation is horrid and the sweet smelling fossil fuel isn't flowing from the refinery?). Until then, you're stuck in the same maelstrom of depreciation as everyone else.

To my mind a collector would have put those dollars towards a Z8, or perhaps jumped in on an early E85 or an E86 M. Maybe you've got all those already. Of all the BMW one could collect, an E89 isn't anywhere near the top of the list right now.

First, what's frustrating here is I did not start this post as a "collector" post. I just wanted to know how rare or not my car is configuration-wise. That everyone has their panties in a pinch over this is ridiculous. Does go to show there really is a huge difference between different owner groups and from my limited experience here, it would Ferrari and Porsche owners are very different from BMW owners.

Thank you for the reference to the GTO and the Zhonda. Interestingly, even in that limited world people will note the rarity of their car, such as the green GTO, for example. I know for a fact at Pagani color selection is a very big deal as owners like to have their own unique Pagani.

No, I am not about to post my private collection here and I guess you missed the post regarding the Z8 S2 and Magic Violet Z1.

Bottom line is I simply sought information concerning my car's configuration. Guess that is too much to ask. Reminds me of what a vintage Porsche dealer once said to me as the difference between a person who buys a Porsche and a person who buys a BMW.

I think you started off hoping to establish the individuality of your car and it evolved into "collector" references.

Interesting reference to owners of other marques which I assume you're working on the basis that I, or no-one else here, has experiences of those spheres. Lets just say my experiences haven't been wholly positive. Your assumption with respect to Porsche ownership is correct, which brings me to the difference between BMW and Porsche drivers I'll come back to later.

In terms of the 250 GTO and Zonda. You've kind of made my point. You of course know that no two GTOs are the same. I doubt many Zondas are, either.

In terms of your collection. Well done. More things of that ilk must be the way forward.

I think I know the differences between Porsche and BMW buyers. That being that BMW drivers don't drive around in constant fear of when their poorly engineered engine is going to expire. You see, I'd have a Porsche if everything post air-cooled, non Mezger, weren't made of cheese and biscuits. I don't need the arse-ache. I also don't like turbos which kinda makes it a GT3 or nothing gig. I've looked at several but never been taken enough to buy one and bought other things. Maybe that will change but as I prefer a manual 'box we're really into the realms of 996 or 997 GT3. Or a 991R (where R is for rocking horse s**t).

I'm new here, but looking down at BMW owners as being somehow inferior to Porsche owners is going to help your cause no end.

[ferry]

Yes, you're right. But not sure how the VIN number helps. VIN tells a bunch of things but color as far as I understand the 17 digits is not one of them.

The last 7 digits of the vin tell everything about the car.
What colour, what interior, what engine, what gearbox what hifi system, what satnav, what electrics, what trim etc etc.
With your posted vin I know for instance you have satnav professional and a heated steering wheel (amongst others)
Its in the BMW vin database. Its only not reverse engineered (not searchable), so only putting in the vin will give this data.
Nobody took the efford to hack that database yet (afaik). So hire an 17 year old asian kid thats a guru in SQL....

Agreed. Establishing the range of chassis VINs on E89 shouldn't be that difficult. Then pump all of them into a VIN decoder and output the findings into a suitable format which allows searches and comparisons.

Then find out that that there are a heap of cars which of the 11 billion (made that up) potential spec combinations can be seen to be unique.

Then sit back and enjoy tea and medals.

[slick]

Valor1, be sure if I would have these special figures I would share it with you to make you happy.

All these details I mentioned above are based on informations various users received on different requests directly from BMW customer service. Therefore I do not understand why they do not support your request as well.

BMW North America simply is not supportive the way BMW is in Germany. This is the response after asking a second time for the information:

Your BMW Correspondence [1-9591771058]

Thank you for writing to BMW of North America, LLC. Congratulations on the purchase of your BMW Z4! This is to confirm our conversation on 7/12/2017.

We appreciate your interest in acquiring sales and production information. Unfortunately, however, our policy does not permit us to release this data.

We hope you stay in touch with us via our websites, www.bmwusa.com and www.bmwusanews.com, for the latest BMW news and product information.

For your convenience, the BMW Customer Relations and Services Department is available Monday through Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. ET and Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET. You can reach us at 1-800-831-1117.

Sincerely,

Kayla S.
Customer Relations and Services
Escalations - Supervisor

Sir........I find you very irritateing

[Nictrix]

I have a car with an option ticked that I have not seen on another one since I bought mine, even though off and on I look around at ones for sale.
It is also in an individual colour and have not seen another like it.
I am in no doubt that there will be many others with this option ticked and others in the same colour, probably some out there with the colour and the option ticked just that I have not seen. This does not mean it is rare enough to worry about and I am not going to lose sleep over thinking if someone has the same as me, which I highly doubt if you were to include the interior, trim, sound system etc.
Overall the chances are you will never see another car exactly the same as yours.

[ferry]

Valor1, be sure if I would have these special figures I would share it with you to make you happy.

All these details I mentioned above are based on informations various users received on different requests directly from BMW customer service. Therefore I do not understand why they do not support your request as well.

BMW North America simply is not supportive the way BMW is in Germany. This is the response after asking a second time for the information:

Your BMW Correspondence [1-9591771058]

Thank you for writing to BMW of North America, LLC. Congratulations on the purchase of your BMW Z4! This is to confirm our conversation on 7/12/2017.

We appreciate your interest in acquiring sales and production information. Unfortunately, however, our policy does not permit us to release this data.

We hope you stay in touch with us via our websites, www.bmwusa.com and www.bmwusanews.com, for the latest BMW news and product information.

For your convenience, the BMW Customer Relations and Services Department is available Monday through Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. ET and Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET. You can reach us at 1-800-831-1117.

Sincerely,

Kayla S.
Customer Relations and Services
Escalations - Supervisor

Write to BMW Germany. I would doubt they would give you such valuable proprietary detail either.

[GuidoK]

Maybe writing in german would help not to be automatically directed to BMW NA.

[PerryGunn]

Starting January 2018, BMW's Individual service will feature the new BMW Lucky Dip Configurator (LDC), just select the model line of interest and, with a single button click, the LDC will generate a car with a guaranteed unique configuration - perfect for those vexatious consumers who buy a mass-market car but hate to think anyone else is driving a car just like theirs

[Fazerfahrer]

Yes, you're right. But not sure how the VIN number helps. VIN tells a bunch of things but color as far as I understand the 17 digits is not one of them.

You need to check the Vin each by each with a VIN decoder to get infos like colour and interiour as well.

As an example details of my first and second Z4.

IMG_1645.PNG (110.49 KiB) Viewed 992 times

IMG_1644.PNG (201.95 KiB) Viewed 992 times

Keep in mind that DKG is also menioned as manual but has an additional option dual-plate clutch.

[ferry]

Starting January 2018, BMW's Individual service will feature the new BMW Lucky Dip Configurator (LDC), just select the model line of interest and, with a single button click, the LDC will generate a car with a guaranteed unique configuration - perfect for those vexatious consumers who buy a mass-market car but hate to think anyone else is driving a car just like theirs

How about the Unique Driver's Individual Configuration (UDIC).

[Ewazix]

Starting January 2018, BMW's Individual service will feature the new BMW Lucky Dip Configurator (LDC), just select the model line of interest and, with a single button click, the LDC will generate a car with a guaranteed unique configuration - perfect for those vexatious consumers who buy a mass-market car but hate to think anyone else is driving a car just like theirs

How about the Unique Driver's Individual Configuration (UDIC).

[GuidoK]

Starting January 2018, BMW's Individual service will feature the new BMW Lucky Dip Configurator (LDC), just select the model line of interest and, with a single button click, the LDC will generate a car with a guaranteed unique configuration - perfect for those vexatious consumers who buy a mass-market car but hate to think anyone else is driving a car just like theirs

If you buy something like a mini or a DS3 you have like 200 little trinkets and such you can configure in an array of colours/finishes. With that many possibilities, its even hard to spec a car that has already been specced that exact way

[Mr Tidy]

FWIW, if you really wanted unique you should probably have bought it new!

Surely time to move on now.

[Valor1]

Maybe writing in german would help not to be automatically directed to BMW NA.

VIN numbers have country/region specific identifiers.

It would have been interesting if BMW had only offered the Z4 with a Twin Turbo Six. With a JB4 for $500 every Z4 then would have Boxster Spyder HP. As it is now it seems the vast majority of Z4s have little four bangers.

As for "mass produced" the E89, the only Z4 actually produced in Germany, is rare by "mass produced" standards, with roughly three Z3 for every one E89 and roughly two prior gen Z4 for every one E89. Last figure I saw showed about 1 Z4 for every 40 or so E90.

In 2016 Porsche sold 240k cars of which 13k were Boxsters.
In 2016 BMW sold 1.9 million cars of which maybe 2k were Z4.

Mathematically speaking that would make the E89 Z4 rare, whether just as a BMW product or even compared to a Boxster.

Now the reality of course is not all Z4s were created equal so let's cut to the chase. A Z4 without a twin turbo six is really just a stripped down Z4 made to compete with lower price cars. U.S. pricing wise, a twin turbo Z4 is a $65k car where as the non-twin turbo six cylinder cars could be had for up to $20,000 less.....a very significant price differential. It would be like comparing an R230 Mercedes SL500 to an SL600......there really is no comparison. They may generally look the same but they do not drive the same. An AC with four banger ain't no Cobra.

Be really interesting to see how many Z4 were produced with the desirable N54 motor.

[Crazy Harry]

I've read this thread a few times now albeit with waning interest - and now its like I'm back in first school in a virtual game of 'top trumps' with real cars.

OP I'm pleased that you enjoy your cars and have managed to collect examples that you are pleased with and I recognise that knowing about their exclusivity is an important factor in your decision to purchase them. Indeed one of my own cars was one of less than 400 made in 1938 so not may about now and the previous owners of all of them have been published in collectors books but I bought it because I liked it - only found out about the numbers produced after I got it My last daily was built in 2003 and good low mileage examples are now worth in excess of their new price - if kept as standard. They had no options list - a one size fits all and to some extent while options make cars affordable they do noting for their value as this thread testifies. When I sold mine at the start of this year (as standard) it had a whisker short of 200K on it - I had all that value as grins and smiles. The car lives on with a collector but at least it had a life. I don't want to be scared of using my cars.

My Zed is blue because I like blue cars (my last three have been blue) and has what must be a common options list but I love it because it drives well and because of that its my daily. The value for me is how it makes me feel pushing into a tight corner and I can see it on the drive now and recall that feeling. Having read posts and meet some of the guys from the forum the interest here I suggest is owning your own thrill machine - we all have different circumstances so our ideal Zed differs you only have to look at past threads about roadster/coupe; 2.0/3.0; E85/E89.

As soon as you have options every car is rare but it just makes every car the same as they are described by the universal common denominator. You could have had a Mini Cooper or a Mini Rio and everyone knew the spec - but an E89 is an E89 if you get what I mean.

I can assure you that the next time I'm braking full on for a tight corner what will be foremost in my mind will be either 'did I make a good tyre choice?' or just screaming; not 'how many other owners have the same configuration as me?'

I'm sorry that this forum hasn't given you the answers you were looking for but its (IMHO) about loving the Zed here. This is the first forum I've joined where members are pleased for other members having a nice car - just look at the responses to new members posts and pictures. We celebrate owners good fortunes and look at their cars and think 'maybe mine would drive better with that done'. Members might tease others and already I realise there are some long running gags in the threads but there's nothing to prove here.

If you have a Zed we love you but I don't think we can help with the info you require. You have nothing to prove - now talk to us about driving