I know what a 3 series is, and a 5 series, but for the life of me have no understanding of what the E numbers mean and why they are used rather than say ‘a 2007 ish 5 series’

Enlighten me please ?

🙂

E numbers listing

It’s so they can call different cars the same thing. Like Porsche 911s which are actually called 911s, 930s, 964s, 996s, 991s etc

The E means Entwicklung. Or Development in English.

ah, that’s a useful link !

Is your google not working 😉

All I know is that I’ve always fancied an E30 and I should have bought one before prices sky rocketed instead of messing about with that daft Capri

So from that link what is the present 5 series numbers F something I presume?

There is a lovely dark metallic green E30 Touring that parks near Wolverton station. It looks like a well loved and very tidy car, I like it a lot.

I know what a 3 series is, and a 5 series, but for the life of me have no understanding of what the E numbers mean and why they are used rather than say ‘a 2007 ish 5 series’

Enlighten me please ?

Because a 2010 registered 5 Series could be an E6x or an F1x which are totally different cars

^^^^ aye, every day is learning day 🙂

Because like every niche, the fanboys need to have their own code/language to make it a bit more exclusive.

Bit like cycling, its not a bottle its a bidet, a bag is musette, a group is a peleton, a line formed in a crosswind is an echelon etc.

Bit like cycling, its not a bottle its a bidet, a bag is musette, a group is a peleton, a line formed in a crosswind is an echelon etc.

Are you quite sure about that (bolded)…. 😯

Damn autocorrect 😆

😀

Or because in every domain, it’s useful to have precise, concise terms for things?

Peleton isn’t just a group, it’s the big, main group at the back.

“Echelon” is rather shorter than “line formed in a crosswind”

Bidet does not mean bottle, although I guess you could use a bottle in a pinch 😉

Musette, I’ll give you. I does indeed mean bag.

Musette, I’ll give you. I does indeed mean bag.

Actually it means nosebag, museau being muzzle/snout.

So from that link what is the present 5 series numbers F something I presume?

F10

Current 3 series is F30. That’s as far as my interest goes.

WANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and I don’t even like BMWs!!

Tenfoot
Its 2015 the F10 says 2009-2013 for the saloon & the F11 Touring is only till 2013

Bidet does not mean bottle

AYe, passing up a bidet to the team leader would normally be a bit odd

http://www.speedmetalcycling.com/episodenotes/2014/4/24/episode-88-greg-lemonds-diarrhea

It’s BMW’s engineering codes, most manufacturers use them. The new Range Rover is L405, the previous one was L322………….

Yeah, but it only seems to be the BMW fanbois who also use them. I have a Mk4 Mondeo.

Yeah your right aracer, but everyone in BMW world use them, I worked for them for years, in the UK & Middle East, wherever you go they are referred to by their E or F numbers, I suppose it’s easier to identify which one, I’m with JLR now and have even started referring to their product by the engineering code, getting some odd looks though 😕

All I know is that I’ve always fancied an E30 and I should have bought one before prices sky rocketed instead of messing about with that daft Capri

Nearly bought a very nice E30 M3 in 2001, was an 89G plate EVO 2 model iirc. Had about 85k on the clock, full specialist service history, and was going for about £6500… I bought a Pug 306Gti-6 instead. Not a bad car granted, and I had some fun in it, but they’re worth a pittance these days (it was worth a pittance only 3 years later!) and the cheapest E30 M3’s are going for over £25k now. If you’ve got a good condition EVO 3 with low mileage and full history you can pretty much charge what you like, and someone will pay it!

Wife of the guy who has the motorbike shop next door to my shop has got a last of the line E36 M3, 99T plate, Estoril Blue with grey leather interior (best combo IMO) that has only done 36k miles from new! It’s not been on the road in years, though wouldn’t take much to get it back, and I’m trying to twist her arm to sell it to me. Not quite the purists car the E30 is, but stupidly bloody quick and still an involving drive, and with that little mileage on the clock, is only going to go up in value year after year!

Had a couple of E34 5 series a few years ago, loved those, and between me and my Dad we’ve owned iterations of pretty much every 3 and 5 series (and in his case some 6’s and 7’s too) that BMW have built over the years… I would carry on, but the non BMW fans stopped reading a long while ago! 😉

For a site full of posters who know all about T4, T5 and T6 VW vans I don’t know why people get so defensive about others using BMW E codes, they’re desperately geeky internal codes but if you’re into BMWs is hardly a clique thing. It’s easier than using years for me, I’ve no idea when they stopped making one and started making another – especially the E30 and E36, it was such a departure for BMW a lot of people didn’t like the new one so the old one sold for a couple of years after the new one came out.

Anyway, the Germans and Japs tend not to change model names when update them so you get the odd codes – VAG cars are worse, not only do you get the Mks you have to deal with the chassis codes because of all the platform sharing.

Yes yes yes but nobody has yet answered my question about the 5 series codes!

Well a bit of GoogleFu is just about as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike as non of them can seem to agree on production years!

BMW chassis codes

The F10 and F11 had a refresh in 2014 so will be designated LCI variants.

I used to have an e90 LCI (can’t remember what LCI stands for now)

EDIT – Google says Life cycle impulse

Bit sad but just off to go and pick up my new (to me) E91 330D Touring in a bit, and I’m like a kid at Christmas! Been a very long time since I got excited about a car… 😳

So if E means “Entwicklung” does F mean “Fotze”? Or is that too obvious.