[Nav-KC135]

Everyone,

I special ordered a 2021 M240 convertible, Sunset Orange/Ivory leather. I am trying to ascertain how many of said M240 convertibles were built for the US market (it's an insurance issue). I had the same information for my 2006 E46 ZHP (1 of 7: Imola/Grey leather/6MT) and would love to know if I have another unicorn. It has been almost impossible to find anything since BMW stopped production very shortly after producing mine Easter week of 2021. My dealership seems to not know how to find out. The forums like this seem to be the fount of all knowledge! You guys rock.

[morphomeman]

Just curious about how this is an insurance issue. And I assume that only BMW USA would know the answer to your question. The dealer probably can find out who at US HQ would have access to the information.

[Ajowhan]

Originally Posted by morphomeman

Just curious about how this is an insurance issue. And I assume that only BMW USA would know the answer to your question. The dealer probably can find out who at US HQ would have access to the information.

My guess would be during a total loss claim, insurance has to look at the closest options of comparable car and mileage in the market and use that to calculate the payout. The car that are rare and not in the market is likely to have higher spread in price and possibly inflated.

[Nav-KC135]

Ajowhan gets it. that is exactly the issue. For insurance purposes, they will only see the M240 and miss out on its actual provenance. They tried to screw me on my E46 when totaled by an A$$hat who didn't stop like the rest of the traffic on a bridge/tunnel complex! Also, BMW NA was useless last time I asked the question regarding production numbers. I got my E46 production numbers from the E46 mafia folks who pulled together all the research, same with my parents 1997 Z3 in an individual color.

[Nav-KC135]

morphomeman- you have to want the dealer to want to help. They are "too busy" and don't know the answers to questions you ask.

[TAZ007]

Originally Posted by Nav-KC135

morphomeman- you have to want the dealer to want to help. They are "too busy" and don't know the answers to questions you ask.

Your sarcasm is dripping sir.

[deathking]

Would be curious to know as well but don't have any answers. You could look into an agreed value insurance policy down the road?

[morphomeman]

So the point is that this vehicle should be more valuable because it is a unicorn. That strikes me as an odd notion from an insurance point of view.
The initial insured value of a new vehicle is the sticker price. Then there is a fairly standard depreciation, which kicks in as soon as you register the car. Insurers don't care about rarity. Nor can they calculate the depreciated value of individual vehicles.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Insurers are not in the beauty business.

[Ajowhan]

Originally Posted by morphomeman

So the point is that this vehicle should be more valuable because it is a unicorn. That strikes me as an odd notion from an insurance point of view.
The initial insured value of a new vehicle is the sticker price. Then there is a fairly standard depreciation, which kicks in as soon as you register the car. Insurers don't care about rarity. Nor can they calculate the depreciated value of individual vehicles.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Insurers are not in the beauty business.

Thats the thing though. rarity can affect depreciation. Some car can be so rare and sought after that they actually went opposite direction in value.

And like you said, insurance have no way to calculate the depreciated value of individual vehicles, so what they can do is to look at current market value of in used car markets which of course fluctuates according to supply and therefor highly correlate with rarity of the car.

[p912guy]

I have to agree with @morphomeman on this one. Our cars are not truely "rare" by any stretch of the imagination. Special and fun to drive yes, but rare - no. Yes, someone may have a "unicorn" based on option and color choices but that doesn't make it more valuable. Based on the logic a "unicorn" is more valuable, MINI Coopers would be impossible to insure as they claim they have so many color and option choices, very few cars are the same. I'm just not buying the logic here and I'd bet money insurance companies aren't either, but that's just me.

[TAZ007]

Originally Posted by p912guy

I have to agree with @morphomeman on this one. Our cars are not truely "rare" by any stretch of the imagination. Special and fun to drive yes, but rare - no. Yes, someone may have a "unicorn" based on option and color choices but that doesn't make it more valuable. Based on the logic a "unicorn" is more valuable, MINI Coopers would be impossible to insure as they claim they have so many color and option choices, very few cars are the same. I'm just not buying the logic here and I'd bet money insurance companies aren't either, but that's just me.

Agree. You want a unicorn, wait 25 years when it becomes an antique and even that is iffy on appreciated value.

[Nav-KC135]

Actually, having a low production number car does affect insurance. You can get agreed to value. I had a 1 of 7 ever built and, yes, I did get more when it got totaled.

[dradernh]

I've thought that with its RWD, no sunroof, and MT, my car is at least somewhat unicornish. Perhaps, though, it is colors and other options that contribute more to creating a BMW unicorn.

I could stand to learn more about this, not so much from the insurance perspective but from the resale perspective. Even though I intend to keep my car indefinitely, that concerns me more.

[Nav-KC135]

Go to the E46 ZHP Facebook page to see what happens in a lower production vehicle and prices. So yes, it does matter if you have the correct insurance for your needs. If you can prove provenance, which is what I hoped this forum could assist in, it’s value does change. So, back to my initial question: does anyone or has anyone been able to ascertain how many M240’s might have been produced? Or even better, does someone have a contact that might know?

[msej449]

@Nav-KC135 In the recent past, BMW has certainly published delivery numbers for all the 2 Series Coupé vs Convertible by country. These have been used on threads discussing rarity, ratio of coupé to convertible, and the 2 Series as a proportion of sales compared to 3 and 5 Series. I'm not sure what the time-lag is - my recollection is that it takes a few quarters before the numbers appear. I'll take a look through my posting history and see if I can find what you're looking for.

[peteyrx7]

Originally Posted by Nav-KC135

Everyone,

I special ordered a 2021 M240 convertible, Sunset Orange/Ivory leather. I am trying to ascertain how many of said M240 convertibles were built for the US market (it's an insurance issue). I had the same information for my 2006 E46 ZHP (1 of 7: Imola/Grey leather/6MT) and would love to know if I have another unicorn. It has been almost impossible to find anything since BMW stopped production very shortly after producing mine Easter week of 2021. My dealership seems to not know how to find out. The forums like this seem to be the fount of all knowledge! You guys rock.

There aren't any published stats that I'm aware of and I've also put in some effort trying to locate them. I would however note that the M240 is still in production. The coupe is scheduled to end production at the end of this month and the convertible might possibly run a bit longer. Perhaps we'll see some numbers after production ends but I kind of doubt it as nothing was ever published on the 135i, only the 1M had #s released.

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by Nav-KC135

...does anyone or has anyone been able to ascertain how many M240’s might have been produced? Or even better, does someone have a contact that might know?

All I've found are overall 2 Series sales at https://www.goodcarbadcar.net/bmw-2-...es-usa-canada/.

You might try Tom Plucinsky (tplucinsky@roundel.org) of BMW NA; he might know if the data you're looking for is available.

[freakystyly]

Not sure if cross posting from another BMW forum is allowed but on maxbimmer (replace underscore with name)

http://www._______.com/forums/showthread.php?t=157862

There is a user named Sickfinga who can look up production numbers for finished runs... LCI F22/23 are still being produced so numbers are not available.

He was active on this forum but I'm not sure anymore.

My car is 1 of 5 in Canada (like Dradernh's but mine's white) so there are 5 identical clones of my car I understand it to mean. It's Pre-LCI so the run ended and numbers were available.

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by freakystyly

He was active on this forum but I'm not sure anymore.

It looks like SickFinga's last post to a bimmerpost forum was on 4/29/2020.

I wanted an Alpine White car, but beggars can't be choosers.

[Nav-KC135]

actually, have you been on BMW's website lately? The only 2's to order are the gran coupe. I was told they are starting retool for the upcoming 2's.

[Nav-KC135]

Thanks. I have one for the E46 ZHP's and the Z3's (my parents have a unicorn color in that as well). Individual color only produced in 1997 so 1 of 331 total in that color. That number could be even smaller as it's a 5 speed with leather interior.