MC Sales figures in the UK. Rarer than you think!

[Greenbat]

Ok couldnt help my curiousity about MC numbers in the UK so contacted BMW to enquire about figures in the UK.

The response is as follows

S50 S54
1998: 88, 0
1999: 243, 0
2000: 159, 0
2001: 2, 59
2002: 0, 57
2003: 0, 1

So total MCs sold in the UK 609. (S50 492, S54 117)

We can only guess about numbers which have been written off and exported.

Greenbat

Sorry about the format!

[exdos]

Greenbat,

Top work! I'm sure all owners will be delighted with the figures. The other question is: where on Earth did the rest of the RHD MCs get sold?

I suggest that you make this subject a "sticky" because I'm sure people will want to refer to this many times in the future.

[maahny]

Greenbat,

Top work! I'm sure all owners will be delighted with the figures. The other question is: where on Earth did the rest of the RHD MCs get sold?

I suggest that you make this subject a "sticky" because I'm sure people will want to refer to this many times in the future.

Japan and South Africa?

[BEN]

fantastic, well done mate!

i along with loads of other people asked BMW UK for those figures!
never got them!

[Greenbat]

Yeah, contacted BMW GB but their response was not very helpful so got in touch with BMW Deutschland about 4 days ago. They sent me an email a couple of hours after my enquiry so say they were gonna someone on it. Got the reply today.

Back to the real issue, 609 MC in 4 years of sales is remarkable. Sad I know but I have just fallen in love with the MC even more.

Greenbat

PS How do I make this thread a sticky?

[Broccers]

Excellent !!!

To think we got over 10 percent at Donnington too makes that even more of a success.

8)

PS I'll move this to FAQ in a week or so.

[KIDDLE]

Okay great work, but who here has the 2003 reg car ..... :roll: that is a one off !
Love the car but mine has to go again :( work is taking me to russia so no way I can keep the car :( :( :(

[BEN]

i might be way off, i think it was a 52 plate imola red one.
dont quote me!

[Brett]

Good find Greenbat - gives me even more information to go on on my quest to join the (rather exclusive) club! 8)

[brady]

3 were officially brought into ireland, one yellow, one silver(mine) and one black

[Brett]

3 were officially brought into ireland, one yellow, one silver(mine) and one black

Explains why there were none listed on www.autotrader.ie :-)

[brady]

if you go to www.carzone.ie, there is one for sale but its on uk plates but ive never seen another one in ireland, the car literally stops traffic over here!

[LordeRyall]

3 RHD cars came into Singapore.

Of those: 1 written off, 1 exported to Australia and 1 is still here........

[flyingsaucer]

Very interesting read Greenbat. I presume the hike between '98 and '99 was due to the price drop and Top Gear drivers car of the year awards increasing interest but does anyone have any suggestions as to why the big drop from '00 to'01?

[c_w]

Very interesting read Greenbat. I presume the hike between '98 and '99 was due to the price drop and Top Gear drivers car of the year awards increasing interest but does anyone have any suggestions as to why the big drop from '00 to'01?

The E46 M3 came out in 2000 (x-plates I think?), it would have been the car to have at the time, being more modern and techincally better spec'd etc.

[biggusladdus]

Very interesting read Greenbat. I presume the hike between '98 and '99 was due to the price drop and Top Gear drivers car of the year awards increasing interest but does anyone have any suggestions as to why the big drop from '00 to'01?

E46 M3 came out around that time didn't it?

[MrMicko]

Very interesting read Greenbat. I presume the hike between '98 and '99 was due to the price drop and Top Gear drivers car of the year awards increasing interest but does anyone have any suggestions as to why the big drop from '00 to'01?

Production was discontinued in year 00 for more than 6 months and production started again in february 01. That might have something to do with the big drop.

[Brett]

if you go to www.carzone.ie, there is one for sale but its on uk plates but ive never seen another one in ireland, the car literally stops traffic over here!

Imola Red as well. No price mentioned though...

[Breadvan Matt]

Brady,
In Ireland, I owned the black MC for a while. Are you the guy with the 99 D silver MC down in mondello? I spoke to a few BMW dealers on numbers and they said that they believe only 5~6 MC's were originally registered in Ireland (I've seen at least 3 Dublin registered MC's). I then know of a few more which were imported in from the UK (including the one in carzone). I spoke to this guy and it sounds like a good one, but he said he wants 29,000 euro! for the car. Might explain why its been there a while.

[Brett]

I spoke to this guy and it sounds like a good one, but he said he wants 29,000 euro! for the car. Might explain why its been there a while.

Hmmm, £19,800 of our GBP...I don't think it has any further interest for me, especially with 58k on the clock.

[Breadvan Matt]

Brett,
The 29,000 euro stands for switching the car to Irish number plates. If I remember, he was looking for 16,000 sterling which equates to about 24,500 euros. To get the car registered in Ireland, you need to pay a extra tax called VRT which adds about 5,000 euros to the price (= 29,000 euros). :cry:

You can buy it for the £16,000 obviously. Might explain why there is so little MC's in this country.

He told me he went to the UK to find a mint MC. He test drove 6 MC's before he found this one. He hasn't had it long (6 months I think).

[Spooks]

I now feel even more privileged to be driving one !!

[BEN]

the e46 M3 never came out till a Y reg, thats sept 01

[Lee]

the e46 M3 never came out till a Y reg, thats sept 01

there was a couple of x plates! I did not think so either untill I saw one!

[BEN]

thinking about it X did role into 01

[c_w]

I think even if it was mid-2001 I think this would have meant people would have been aware of it's release (probably been in motoring press for about a year before it did) so maybe buyers would have held off 'till its release?

[Brett]

I think even if it was mid-2001 I think this would have meant people would have been aware of it's release (probably been in motoring press for about a year before it did) so maybe buyers would have held off 'till its release?

M3 had four seats? Might have swayed family men/women I guess.

[BEN]

and fat businessmen!

unless the M3 is in Phoenix, seca or estoril it looks to much like a 3 series sport!
but i guess some people dont like being looked at!

[c_w]

and fat businessmen!

unless the M3 is in Phoenix, seca or estoril it looks to much like a 3 series sport!
but i guess some people dont like being looked at!

Yea but I always think that dark silver/grey M3s are CSLs at a glance :lol:

[Brett]

I don't suppose there is a way of finding out how many of these have been written off or exported. Just curious as to how few are actually left in the UK.

[steve1]

Unless you know someone who has access to DVLA data base then i don't think the info is available, might be wrong though.

Steve.

[Jon]

3 RHD cars came into Singapore.

Of those: 1 written off, 1 exported to Australia and 1 is still here........

Interesting stats. Mine was originally in Singapore. Came to UK imported by a private dealer.
?Came via Australia. UK spec. Not S52 US engine. :lol:

[Brett]

Unless you know someone who has access to DVLA data base then i don't think the info is available, might be wrong though.

Steve.

No I don't but how about a different tact. Do we know of any that have been written off or exported that we can discount? Maybe not, I'm starting to sound like a "nerd"! :oops:

[steve1]

I think this type of question has been raised before, and it is very hard to get a definative answer, you really would only be getting info from people that participate on this forum, and believe it or not, there are some owners who don't know about us on here.
Would be good though if we could get some real hard facts about numbers etc.

Steve.

[MrBlonde]

There were 21 RHD S50B32 M Coupes imported into Australia, one of which lives in my garage!

[Kiwi]

3 RHD cars came into Singapore.

Of those: 1 written off, 1 exported to Australia and 1 is still here........

Found this thread very interesting back in the day. When I bought my MC, I found out it was ex-Singapore and had paperwork showing it was ordered by a Singapore BMW dealer from BMW UK for direct export to Singapore. So looked up this thread again and think mine was the last remaining MC referred to. With a bit of hunting, was able to track down some discussion of the car in Singapore forums like this thread:

http://www.bmw-sg.com/forums/lounge/15549-yellow-z3-m-coupe-spotted.html?highlight=coupe+yellow

Anyway, fairly amazing that the cars are rare enough that able to track one online etc.

[sidevalve]

If one was really keen, I suspect the DVLA would be compelled to respond to a Freedom of Information request on the subject of numbers - at least as far as currently taxed vehicles go. SORN'ed etc might be less easy. The request would have to ask that owner details be omitted because of privacy laws, but as a public agency that could not argue this information is too onerous to collate, they'd be over a barrel.
Just need the energy to pursue it through the bureaucracy - which is beyond my personal threshold!

[coupe fan]

Link to 2 later threads discussing UK car sale figures of the ZMC and the numbers of each colour

http://www.z3mcoupe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9600

http://www.z3mcoupe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3140

[rocketjon]

Hi - fairly recent owner of an MC here in Dubai. (Fm Oct 09) have a Blue Estoril 99 M coupe,(LHD) which gets plenty of attention. One gent offering to buy, but he told myself he had found through enquiries there was about four MC's here - mine being the only one he had actually seen. Several 3ltr coupes seen, and in past year have spotted two LHD M roadsters for sale - one Silver/red, in very good conditon sold for about £10k and recently one black/w I think red interior.

There is only three dealers/service agents here that would service these, I could enquire how many they are aware of....(?)

Intriguing thread!

[breezer]

Does anyone have a Wikipedia account? Would be worth updating the figures it quotes, which are much higher...

[Steely]

According to howmanyleft.co.uk (stats from dvla database), there are 419 m coupes registered on the road in the UK today(and 77 on a sorn), 2002 they reached there height at 570 registered, so with the sales figures posted, i assume that covers the exports (and illegals). Almost as rare as my 70's 1275 gt mini!

http://howmanyleft.co.uk/vehicle/bmw_m_coupe

How many regstations per year too.

[Spooks]

I spotted the link to this site in EVO magazing this month, thanks for saving me a job!

Interesting to see how the numbers have fluctuated.

[coupe fan]

So there are 496 left out of 570, as I read that. About 74 written off.

I have just read the footnote - "SORN data only available since 2007" - so the 570 figure would be a little bit higher if the unknown SORNs were added.