Valor1 said:
VIN numbers have country/region specific identifiers.
then say you've imported it or something like that if they would ask.

oke:
If you write in german I doubt they'll redirect you to bmw NA. That would be very.........'ungerman' :lol:
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.
Around here it seems that the majority are 6 cyl engines.... and especially a lot of IS versions (the top model so to speak). Probably mostly enthousiasts that import them etc.
Also in the facelift, the turbo 4 banger isn't 'that little', as its easily and reliably tunable up to 300hp and is of course lighter than its 6cyl rivals, so I think a tuned 20i/28i will be quite the match for a stock 35i.
And its not always about the horsepower with a roadster (ok, that might sound odd coming from a person with a twinscrew compressor...)
Weight and handling are imho key for this type of car (or at least thats my view on how I use my z4, I'm not the boulevard cruiser kind of person....)
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.
Depends on what you regard as 'mass produced'
I mean the e90 is also quite rare if you compare it to the 'mass produced' VW golf, but the lamborghini gallardo (a mass produced lamborghini) is very rare compared to the 'mass produced' e89.
So there's absolutely no point in comparing numbers to a word that has no fixed value. 'Mass produced' is an empty statement. It has no specific numeral meaning.
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.
Thats because production ended in 2016.... :rofl: It was end of life.
So do you know whats really rare? A 2016 e89. Probably every colour/interior trim combo in that year was unique....... :rofl:
To your eyes the e89 may be special or rare, but that's because it sold particulary bad in the US, in contrast to the e85 or z3.
Here in europe the sales were quite good, about 3-4 times as much as in the US. So maybe rare across the pond, but absolutely not here.
You want a really rare car across the pond? import a TVR or so....
If you look at a normal popular production year like 2010 or 2011 the e89 outsold the boxster easily...both in europe AND the us (according to carsalesdatabase at least). So not rare at all as you see now....
Mathematically speaking that would make the E89 Z4 rare, whether just as a BMW product or even compared to a Boxster.
Not really according to carsalesdatabase....
In the corse over 7 years (2009-2016) there were about 21200 e89's sold in the us and about 23000 boxsters, but the e89 stopped production in early mid 2016, so any person that can make a rough estimate would say that it would be about on par. If you look in the bmw ETK, the e89 production as searchable parts stopped in march, so probably orders also stopped in march. If you look at what number boxsters were ordered in 2016 from april to december, that number comes to 2005 pieces, so the e89 might even get the edge on the boxter...
In europe... a totally different story, here the e89 outsold the boxter in its complete lifetime about 2:1 or so. In the last 2 years of its lifetime less than the boxster but in the beginnings much much more. So your view on numbers and rarity is highly highly tainted by what you see around you on the road, not whats actually been made or sold. Over here my view is that mustangs and corvettes are really really rare (much rarer than say...911's). In reality that's of course not true, as I know in the US they're a dime a dozen.
So always take in mind that the world is a really big place.
That the z4 is one of bmw's more rare products.... probably. I think every 2 seater roadster is usually one of the more rare models of large global car manufacturers that serve all markets.... so thats not saying anything really.
I mean a TT roadster is also probably way way rarer than an audi A3 or A4.... that doesnt make it collectable as gold.... it makes it 2 or 3 dime a dozen instead of 1.... :rofl:
So broaden your view to a global one instead of an NA one.