> I have a '95 M3
>that was built in 11/95. Somebody was probably going through the parts
bin in

>Munich and said, there's enough here to build one more, let's built her and
>ship her stateside.

>Larry Seiden
>95 M3, the late arrival
>
The '95 M3 is kind of a special case for BMW. Since OBD II was soon to be the law of the land for '96 models, they didn't want to update the 3.0 liter soon to be superseded by the 3.2 liter that was coming (hence the uncertainty that a '96 would ever exist). The Feds required '96 model-year cars to meet the strict parameters of OBD II, but considered a serial number produced in calendar '95 to be a '95 model-year car. BMW AG cranked out a bunch of M3 serial numbers in December '95 and assembled cars (I believe) as late as February '96 to sneak in before the OBD II deadline (and stock up before the delayed '96s). You'll remember that the E36 M3 was introduced about March '94, so actual production of the '95 badged M3 ran from about February '94 to February '96, two full years!!

I watched this situation carefully because I was trying to time my order of a Euro delivery M3 for June '96 delivery (to be built in May '96) to coincide with the Nurburgring School (replacing the first one that didn't make it back from the '95 School). This set of circumstances made it impossible. Making things more complicated, my order was an Individual paint color, for which timetables do not exist, so I was concerned whether it would get built before the long switch to 3.2 liter motors. Ultimately, my car was also produced in 11/95 and got to me the absolute last business day of 1995. So in Spring '96, BMW dealers were selling new '95 M3s, new '97 5-series (jumping the gun like the M3 did in 1994), and new '96 everything else. Between emission requirements and marketing guys, knowing the model-year of your car (BMW or otherwise) can be a trick question these days.

Dan Tackett
'95 (I think) ///M3 Individual (Aquametallic/grey suede)