VIN #'s

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indyken46619

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A general question about VIN #'s.

My "72" CSi was bought from a gentleman in Boston in the early 80ties and it has always been registered as a 72.

I was doing some internet surfing and noticed that my car was the 90th CSi built with a 2260090 number. The site listed 1060 CSi built in 71 so I am thinking that somewhere along the line a mistake was made.

Or could it have been made in 71 for the model year 72. But I've seen CSi's listed as 71's.

Can anyone give me some insight on this topic. I know it does not make a lot of difference but I was thinking of getting a plate the reads "72 CSI" but maybe I should get "71 CSI"

Much thanks in advance,
Ken
 
I'd say you're solidly in 1971. I'd bet someone made a mistake when the car was first registered in the US, and no one ever bothered to fix it.
 
Doesn't the year of the registration usually refer to the year it was registered? It may have come off the production line in 71 but wasn't registered for use until 72?
 
It doesn't seem real unusual for registration dates to be out of sync with build dates and VINs. I had a 2800CS, VIN 2270077 which one would have thought was an early '70, but which was titled as a '71.

The person I bought it from claimed it was delivered to a US serviceman in Spain, but it was definitely a US specification car. Maybe that history had something to do in this case.
 
Quite a few E9 sat around unsold parked up in fields and holding areas during the 1970's, remember it was an expensive car in it's day.
So it is not uncommon for a car to be built one year and then registered the next.
Still happening. If you go down the M18 and the M180 in Lincolnshire UK you can see huge storage areas, usually old airfields, full of "brand new" unsold cars.
Malc
 
I thought that most Euro car marques use September for the model year change. So if your car was built in Sept of 1971, it would be considered a 72 Model.
 
Changes didn't wait for German cars

Changes were made during running production and could occur at any time. Wouldn't you rather it that way, so the mfr could immediately implement updates rather than waiting till some arbitrary date?

Makes knowing your chassis number useful. Fortunately they are quite short in comparison to "modern" vehicles.
 
m_thompson said:
My late '72 USA 3.0CS has '73 bumpers and the seat belt light on the dash.
Click to expand...
I have two 72s later than yours: 2240288 and 2240298, and both have 72 bumpers. I would guess someone retrofitted the 73 bumpers to your car.

But there is no telling - some years back, I had an early 73 2002tii and it had 72 bumpers and the 72 style plastic intake runners. BMW often made running changes during the course of a model run, but for something like the '73 bumprs, I would have thought that they would have had to have them on cars sold as model year 73s in the US.
 
BMW info

I got a response from my e-mail to BMW.

My car was built 7/26/71 and delivered to the BMW importer in Italy on 8/9/71. That was the only response.

So I am still not sure - is it a 71 or 72 - maybe it was not sold until 72?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Ken
CSi 2260090
 
Vin#s

My 67 2000cs, was sold by Hoffman in California in 1968. The car was built on 11/09/66, and shipped to the states. Being the Importer, if it didn't sell, then he would title it the following year. When I titled the car in Ma., the registry did not want to change the year on ther title. I found one older registry employee, and told her my tale of woe. She said no problem and even found me an Antique plate ending in 67.
 
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