Very Early E89 23i owner

[MErlank01]

Hi All from Sunny Cape Town, South Africa

Long time lurker and recently the owner of a very early E89 which I bought on a whim as a summer car.

I knew it was a 2009 car but didn't realize how early. When I search the VIN, I see it has a 13 Feb 2009 build date and a date of first registration of 22 May 2009 (3 days after the official European launch and 2 days before the official South African launch). Its got a mega spec including IDrive, 293 rims, Elec Heated seats with memory, extended leather, upgraded audio etc etc. This makes me think it was potentially a launch vehicle.

Could anyone on this forum see what number mine was off the production line? It was a German built vehicle.

VIN: WBALM32020E154659

Cheers for now

[RobbiZ4]

Pre-Production of the Z4 E89 already started on Januar 8th, 2008.

VIN's can be checked here:
https://bimmer.work/

Interesting Mix:
801 Germany Version
812 England Version
5DS Luggage-compartment Emerg. Release / Kofferraumnotentriegelung
823 Hot-climate Version / Heißlandausführung

879 German / On-board Documentation
880 English / On-board Documentation
887 Arabic / On-board Documentation

998 Control Of The Launch Internal Demands
999 Order Control First Dealer Cars

[MErlank01]

Thanks Robbi

I know using Wikipedia as a source isn't always the most watertight but it seems to be corroborated in other websites.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_Z4_(E89)

"The Z4 (E89) was officially announced on 13 December 2008 and was unveiled at the 2009 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, alongside the MINI Convertible. The Z4 (E89) was then launched in markets in May 2009."

Obviously there would have been a few pre production models built in December 2008 for marketing materials, etc (not sure if these were available for purchase by the public or not) but per the above it seems like the official launch was May 2009.

[B21]

Welcome…it’s unusual to see a well spec’d 23i..in the UK most were built as ‘budget bargains’..lucky if they came with wheels…!

Hopefully lots of tender care was lavished on these launch cars by the beautiful Bavarian maidens of Regensburg!-

[RobbiZ4]

Update:

AFAIK, production of the 23i started on January 16th, 2009.

Before February 13th, 2009, an estimated 600-800 regular models had already been pre-produced for dealer presentations worldwide.
​

[MErlank01]

Thanks Robbi for the info below. That 998/999 code "Order control first dealer cars" - could you clarify what this means? Obviously speaks to it being an early demo car. Would they have unique spec? Anything unusual about these vehicles?

I think what I'm getting from this is that its an early car, but not quite early enough to be considered a "unicorn" .

Robbi, Could you PM me the PDF you pulled from bimmer.work?

Thanks again guys, please enjoy a photo of her at the coast after living her first 14 years inland.

[RobbiZ4]

The following was taken from an insider post and got translated into English:

BMW 999 order control first dealer cars

This means: the dealer cannot choose any equipment, the equipment is specified by the factory.

Usually you can only determine the color of the outside and the color of the upholstery; there are also other purchasing conditions for this.
But that doesn't make it a trade fair car, but rather a car for the showroom.
Every year we get annoyed with the original dealer equipment.
A re-import must always be specified.

bimmer.work Data for WBALM32020E154659.pdf