[BIGGNS]

Hello friends and fellow long roof afficionados! I wanted to share the results of a little project I just completed. Since purchasing my first E91 five years ago, I’ve been obsessed with them and have been following the market as a hobby (lame, I know). My primary interest is with the RWD/manual version which is, in my opinion, the most engaging driving experience and also one of the rarest configurations to find.

I’m sure you’ve all seen or heard the E91 production numbers tossed around: 429 RWD/6MT built, of those 150 with sport package, and 49 with Msport… I poured through SickFinga’s VIN breakdowns for all the stats I could find relating to E91s and tried to compile them here into a single resource. So here are a couple tables illustrating total North American production broken down by drivetrain and transmission.







I wanted to go a little bit further and create a table (like SickFinga did for the 335is) showing the different color combinations of RWD/6MT E91s produced. So, in my spare time I ran 430 VINs through the decoder and created the following charts. Enjoy!











Notes:

I removed 1 VIN from the data as it was a pre-production RWD M Sport which was never released in Canada.

The one car with Individual paint (code 490) was finished in Dakar Yellow. Funny that they chose a beige interior and didn’t bother equipping it with a sport package…

Since these are all super-rare in their own right, I’d like to propose the following mythological naming convention going forward
6MT+RWD (428) = Pegasus
+ Sport package (149) = Unicorn
+M Sport package (48) = Alicorn (winged unicorn)

[M-technik-3]

1 of 85 It had to be a RWD would have preferred a RWD and 6 spd Manual but that was a tough one. Thanks for posting numbers

[fazm]

Interesting data! I have a 2009 e91 with xDrive, MT, A35 paint, and a beige interior. How many of those are there?

[slupie]

Thanks for the breakdown. Last October I sold my E91 RWD, 6spd with 184+k miles. You might not have it in your chart since it was never intended for the NA market. It was driven by BMW executive in Munich and then imported to US, I bought it with ~11K miles in May of 2008. Production date was June 14, 2006 as pre-production 2007 MY. Attached are the window sticker and maintenance booklet showing service stamps from BMW Niederlassung.

Another strange thing was that it had Premium Package but no SOS or Bluetooth (I added MULF2 later for Bluetooth) and the front seats were half power half manual; fore and aft was manual but the backrest was powered with adjustable lumbar support.

[Serf27]

Isn’t there 349 total m sports?
Not 344.

[eljay]

Nice work.
I know that my 2009 328xi E91 with manual tranny, Monaco Blue/Saddle Brown is 1 of 4 in Canada and 1 of 9 in NA.

[BIGGNS]

Originally Posted by fazm

Interesting data! I have a 2009 e91 with xDrive, MT, A35 paint, and a beige interior. How many of those are there?

Sorry, I didn't do the xdrives. There are nearly 1,500 of them and the process is quite tedious.

[BIGGNS]

Originally Posted by slupie

Thanks for the breakdown. Last October I sold my E91 RWD, 6spd with 184+k miles. You might not have it in your chart since it was never intended for the NA market.

Very interesting! I do have FV95004 included here, it's one of three with the 991 - Pre-series Management code.

Only 1 other car has the S4UA Partially Electric Seat Adjustment option and it's a pre-production car as well.

[BIGGNS]

Originally Posted by Serf27

Isn’t there 349 total m sports?
Not 344.

Not sure, those figures were distilled from SickFinga's posts and messages.
I found 48 manual UT93s in my VIN checks.
Sick PM'd me there are 102 automatic UT93s like my car.
Another post he mentioned 77 manual UU33s: 66 in US and 11 in Canada.
Can't recall where the 117 automatic UU33 number came from.

[michaelalex17]

Good work! Looks like I'm one of 622 xi LCI manuals.

[Skoidat69]

I dunno if you charts are 100% accurate.. i own a '07 barroque red at with black sentec and I saw 3 more for sale on FB marketplace or other auto sales sites. my car is 1 0f 1

[Skoidat69]

I wonder if there is a chart of how many are still on the road..

[krhodes1]

Thanks - I always wondered exactly how rare my car is - it's pretty damned rare at 1 of 2! Tasman on Chestnut (Red/Brown), LCI, RWD, manual. Non Sport.

Any chance you can say if the OTHER one in my color combo is also RWD/stick? Be pretty cool to have 1 of 1.

It was, of course, a special order. Euro Delivery and I still own and love it, with just over 50K on the clock.

Oddly enough, I originally ordered Alpineweiss on Oyster, to match the Saab 9-3SC that it was replacing and changed my mind and changed the order at the last second. That would ALSO have been 1 of 2! But whoever went with that combo evidently has a 1 of 1.

[krhodes1]

Originally Posted by slupie

Thanks for the breakdown. Last October I sold my E91 RWD, 6spd with 184+k miles. You might not have it in your chart since it was never intended for the NA market. It was driven by BMW executive in Munich and then imported to US, I bought it with ~11K miles in May of 2008. Production date was June 14, 2006 as pre-production 2007 MY. Attached are the window sticker and maintenance booklet showing service stamps from BMW Niederlassung.

Another strange thing was that it had Premium Package but no SOS or Bluetooth (I added MULF2 later for Bluetooth) and the front seats were half power half manual; fore and aft was manual but the backrest was powered with adjustable lumbar support.

There was a time you could play a bit fast and loose with the interior options when taking delivery in Munich. And the Premium Pkg contents varied a bit over the years anyway. Would be really cool if your car had cloth seats, I have seen one 325iX e91 with that in the US. It was a Euro Delivery car.

I'm still trying to get my MULF2 BT conversion working on my 2011 e88. Issue is BT is disabled in my MULF2 and you have to code that through the fiber optic bus. I am probably going to have to break down and buy the box to do that.

[Itgb]

Thanks for spending the time to put this together.

I went on a hunt for the 48 M-Sport/6MT/RWD VINs and only got to 15 or so. I can't imagine how many hours it took you to compile all of this. Really cool to see the breakdown of exterior and interior colors as well.

[BIGGNS]

Originally Posted by Skoidat69

I dunno if you charts are 100% accurate.. i own a '07 barroque red at with black sentec and I saw 3 more for sale on FB marketplace or other auto sales sites. my car is 1 0f 1

Looks like you have an xDrive per your signature. Your car wouldn't be included in the pivot tables of color combos.

[BIGGNS]

Originally Posted by krhodes1

Any chance you can say if the OTHER one in my color combo is also RWD/stick? Be pretty cool to have 1 of 1.

Yep, the other one is a manual too.

To clarify, the pivot tables of color combos above are *ONLY* for the RWD/6MT E91s. It takes a long time to run each VIN thru a decoder so I have no intention of covering the thousands of automatic/xDrive cars produced.

[BIGGNS]

Originally Posted by Itgb

I can't imagine how many hours it took you to compile all of this.

Let's just say I'm pretty fast at solving Captchas now!

I just recently did this for 6MT E61s and it took me about a week to cover 300+ VINs. I'll post those charts soon, just gotta find the relevant 5er forum.

And congrats again on sniping me for that LMB unicorn! $20k seems like a reasonable price now after those last two on BaT. Well played sir. I was off at the DMV titling a new truck when that auction closed, I arrived home expecting to explain to my wife how I'd bought yet another wagon... And if you ever want to part with that beautiful artist's rendering of the touring, I'd be happy to give it a good home. PayPal ready

[krhodes1]

Originally Posted by krhodes1

Thanks - I always wondered exactly how rare my car is - it's pretty damned rare at 1 of 2! Tasman on Chestnut (Red/Brown), LCI, RWD, manual. Non Sport.

Any chance you can say if the OTHER one in my color combo is also RWD/stick? Be pretty cool to have 1 of 1.

It was, of course, a special order. Euro Delivery and I still own and love it, with just over 50K on the clock.

Oddly enough, I originally ordered Alpineweiss on Oyster, to match the Saab 9-3SC that it was replacing and changed my mind and changed the order at the last second. That would ALSO have been 1 of 2! But whoever went with that combo evidently has a 1 of 1.

LOL - I just realized this is ONLY for the RWD/manual cars, so I guess I have to settle for 1 of 2, and wonder where my twin is.

Thanks again for all the work!

[krhodes1]

Originally Posted by BIGGNS

Let's just say I'm pretty fast at solving Captchas now!

I just recently did this for 6MT E61s and it took me about a week to cover 300+ VINs. I'll post those charts soon, just gotta find the relevant 5er forum.

And congrats again on sniping me for that LMB unicorn! $20k seems like a reasonable price now after those last two on BaT. Well played sir. I was off at the DMV titling a new truck when that auction closed, I arrived home expecting to explain to my wife how I'd bought yet another wagon... And if you ever want to part with that beautiful artist's rendering of the touring, I'd be happy to give it a good home. PayPal ready

I have the artist's rendering of the e91 as well - happy to make a good scan of it for you to print out until you can find an original - just drop me a PM. Reminds me I have been meaning to get a frame for that for about eight years now...

Got a few other pieces of swag over the years from BMW after buying the car new. Though they stepped up their game when I bought my M235i Euro Delivery. Got a REALLY nice H/K BT speaker for ordering the stereo upgrade, a free personalized keychain AND a gift cert for the Welt Gift Shop. And a full tank of gas! All I got at delivery for the wagon was the keychain, and the first tank of gas in Munich was nearly $200!

[JupiterBMW]

No love for the factory RWD/6AT cars...

That's ok though...

Being that my car is now Bluewater Metallic/Palladium Silver Novillo leather and N54/DCT, I am confident that it is and always will be 1 of 1.

[Itgb]

Originally Posted by BIGGNS

Let's just say I'm pretty fast at solving Captchas now!

I just recently did this for 6MT E61s and it took me about a week to cover 300+ VINs. I'll post those charts soon, just gotta find the relevant 5er forum.

And congrats again on sniping me for that LMB unicorn! $20k seems like a reasonable price now after those last two on BaT. Well played sir. I was off at the DMV titling a new truck when that auction closed, I arrived home expecting to explain to my wife how I'd bought yet another wagon... And if you ever want to part with that beautiful artist's rendering of the touring, I'd be happy to give it a good home. PayPal ready

Honestly, I thought you or someone else was going to bid again. There was a little bit of a oh shit what did I just do moment. It's all good though. All of the issues were addressed and the car drives great now. Was thinking to keep the picture with the car, but I can scan it for you if you want.