The Japan Individual Story

I'm sure Reinhard will be along in a minute with the proper figures but I've seen pics of the J-Spec individual "M" style interiors before - I think it was a special set up for the Japanese market.

My bet is on a retrim, the front door cards dont look right the angle of the CSI detail is out of alignment with the back?

Zitat von koenig dave;98190

A first view for me.
how many like this?

This is one of 298 840 Ci M-Individual with a 4,4 l engine

http://8coupe.com/Production/MarketVersion.aspx

only 5 of 303 J-M62s where no Japan-M-Individuals.

I'm pretty sure that Reinhard knows the VIN of your find, Dave!

I've seen some of them in person(in our small 15.000 people town are two of them) - very nice E31s!

This is the one that was on display at the Tokyo Motorshow, standing in a garage with another ~ 15 E31s in a BMW Club owned basement garage
(klick to enlarge)

with black snake skin interiour(afaik one of two of 30621 E31s)! It returned to Germany years ago.

Here in the background a red slit eye and annother pic here



this lovely red J-Individual - CC61077 - returned in 2010.

A cobbled-together version I reckon - a few //M leather additions, plus a CSi and //M badge added to the boot. Still, an impressive interior for sure.

Zitat von Timm;98197

A cobbled-together version I reckon - a few //M leather additions, plus a CSi and //M badge added to the boot. Still, an impressive interior for sure.

...and silver kidneys...- okay, later ACS's don't fit 100%, but Timm, beside this it is not a pimped 8!

Zitat von Timm;98197

A cobbled-together version I reckon - a few //M leather additions, plus a CSi and //M badge added to the boot. Still, an impressive interior for sure.

Actually I don't think so, the "M" flash interior was (AFAIK) part of this spec - as mentioned, I'm sure Reinhard can help us out. The CSi badge would be wishful thinking though I agree.
Cheers

Yes, yes - I am hurrying

Jason is correct here. Apart from the badges on the bootlid all that you see is tailormade in Munich to be sold exclusively in Japan from 1996 to 1999 as the only model offered.

This series of 299 (298 + 1) M62 8ers + 3 M60 prototypes was indeed called the "M-Individual" and meant to mimic what was not, respectively no longer available otherwise - an 8-series made in Garching at the M-GmbH.

This car is in fact the only E31 that officially carries M-insignia. Cheap plastics, but "M"

From that point of view it took the honour from the CSi where Garching was too shy to hand out the ///M logo and coyly hid the facts under the hood.

As can be seen on the pictures the M-Individual is the exact opposite of the undercover agent CSi. The M-Individual is rather wearing an inflatable muscle suit, a wannabe Bond with the name tag stitched into the collar of his shirts to prove things

Virtually everything is garnished with the M-stripes even including the floor mats.

Although this may seem over the top to some, the M-Individual (to me) is one of the most beautifully equipped E31´s BMW came up with. I shall further elaborate on the how´s, why´s and where´s later on.

Cheers
Reinhard

One question - if specific to the Japanese market, why is the steering wheel on the left?

From what I understand that is a queer thing about "prestige" in Japan.
The well off Japanese seems to find a liking to document this status on the road by swimming against the current, disregarding the fact that with a LHD car in a RHD country traffic may become a little tricky.
All E31´s delivered to Japan (and to my knowledge this also applies to various 7-series) were LHD cars. This is not a small number - more than 2500 E31 went to Japan which makes it the 4th biggest sales market following the UK (3040), USA (6920) and Germany (11197).
Cheers
Reinhard

Some time in 1994 with continuously decreasing E31 sales figures worldwide and the prestigious and desirable but overly expensive CSi in its 3rd production year, certain market versions received a makeover which included changes to the visual appearance thus creating CSi lookalikes to hopefully push sales of the less expensive siblings of the M-GmbH Autobahnstormer.
Initial target markets were the Middle East (starting September 1994), Latin America with the "Luxury Package Mexico" special edition (38 + 28 M73 850´s between March 1995 and October 1996) and Hong Kong which back then still was closer to the West than the East.

BMW Mexico went into operation only in 1994 and the Mexico Luxury Edition probably was meant to build up prestige in the emerging Latin American market by seemingly offering the "top of the line" model at a "discount" price. We do not have marketing material available but at least for the above mentioned 38 cars the package was summarized into an order option S959 Luxury Package Mexico.

Basically all 8ers (M60, M70, M73) that were shipped towards the Middle East from MY 1995 onwards received the visual rejuvenation and much the same applies to shipments that went to Hong Kong starting in Spring 1995. All 17 cars that found their new home in the Far East were CSi lookalikes with M60 engine and boasting an identical, very complete packaging.

During that time no CSi´s were delivered to the respective regions.

Did this do any good to the sales figures?

Yes, on a small scale but only for a very short period of time and definitely No on the large scale looking at the worldwide production numbers which of course is not entirely unexpected.
The impact though was seemingly big enough to continue hoping for increasing sales figures in the more important sales regions.

The next market reviewed was Japan where late in the year 1995 and preceding the start of the revamped V8 with M62 engine three identically equipped prototypes were showcased around the time of or following the 1995 Tokyo Motorshow. Two of those have appeared since, one back in Germany, the other one vanishing in the Middle East.

A limited production run of 200 cars was advertised in the "Japan only" brochure (see previous posting) making the M-Individual appear a factory collectable which in the end was kind of a marketing ploy only. Of course producing more than announced may be interpreted as a reaction towards an overwhelming response to the offer but I am certain that no first owner was ever told that the "limited to 200 cars" claim was reached after less than two years with additional demand to be fulfilled until the very last days of E31 production
Following the three 1995 M60 prototypes and another sample M62 (CC61054) the whole extent of the goodies for the M-Individual was packaged into the option code S766 Individualselektion Japan. Read below what BMW managed to squeeze into the sample car and all subsequent M-Individuals.

The M-Individual strongly impacted E31 sales in Japan, certainly much to the liking of the sales department. A few months later the production of the UK Sport Edition started and this was likely the biggest success of the wannabe-CSi idea.

A few weeks ago I showed a chart which gives a better idea of the sales success.

Whereas sales continued to drop worldwide there was a steep incline wherever CSi mock-ups in various degrees of splendour were on offer. One has to take into account that at the time those special editions went into production the E31 had been running for 5-7 years and had taken a few steps down from being the pinnacle of technological possibilities to an old car from many points of view.

The M-Individual was available in three exterior colour combinations. All cars shared the same interior.

Below are pictures taken in Autumn 2005 showing (probably) the first M-Individual that was repatriated. At the time the car had less than 40k kms (25k mls) on the clock. After nearly 7 happy years with this car we are now at 80k kms (50k mls). My estimate is that at least two dozen of the M-Individuals have come back to Germany by now, partially for the splendid interior, partially because they are being sold off very cheap (for German standards) in Japan.

Outside the car is finished in Avus Blue - a colour in exclusive use by M/Individual back then, also found on E34 M5 and E36 M3. The only available wheels were the Styling 5 bolted cross-spoke design.

The roof of "all" (in fact not) M-Individuals came painted in Cosmos Black. At the time the individual Avus Blue along with the contrasting paintwork was worth roughly 1.4K GBP. The plastic baffle at the end of the bonnet was black only for cars in Hellrot (Bright Red). Mine turned black in 2005... I like this

The M-Individual and later on the Middle East Platinum E31 received chrome plated kidney grilles. This also was a no cost option for the UK Sport but since the late 90´s were not the 80´s they were included in the order only rarely.

THE ///M-sticker on the doors was originally seen on the rear spoiler of the BMW E36 Compact. The engine compartment sticker shows the Individual provenance of the car.

The complete leather interior covers dashboard, center console, door and rear side panels along with all seat covers. It is a mix between Stage 1 and Stage 2 (further explanations here). There is a little more to it than it appears at first. This information can be taken from the build data sheet of CC61054 (see above). Probably for cost reasons, probably for reasons of expected heat exposure the dashboard and center console parts were not covered with real leather but an artificial surrogate called Lorica. Owners were never told - we took it to the fire to find out

A very rare option is the extended real wood veneer (S773) Bird´s Eye Maple stained in the shade "Graphite". This has always been rare simply due to the fact that it normally added another 1500 GBP at ordering time. Real wood was only ever available for LHD cars.

Upon first view a seemingly practical thing is the coin holder, which was made to hold 500 (5 EUR, 4GBP) and 100 Yen (1 EUR , 80p) coins. It is not exactly durable though and unfortunately Yen coins don´t work here. It does fit local 2 EUR and 20ct coins though where the latter ones are good for nothing either.

Shown in the previous posting is what really makes the M-Individual stand out. A multitude of ///M-leather appliqués on each seat, door and rear side panels, glove box lid and floor mats - a total of 13 sets make you believe you´re sitting in an M8 - at least

Those floor mats never existed outside the M-Individual cars and cannot be found in the parts catalogue. Our car came without and I was lucky to purchase them off a Japanese auction site.

In case this interior rings a bell for some of you - a very similar ID was found on two E36 M3 special editions: the M3 GT & GT2 (Evo)

Listed in the parts catalogue was the shifter knob with 3-coloured M-type stitching. It was comparatively cheap (just a few quid above the black one) but has been NLA for some years now.

To summarize - the M-Individual came equipped in a fashion that many CSi owners certainly would have loved to have, only nobody offered them a chance. More or less as soon as the production of the M-Individual started, BMW dropped the CSi and hence the only E31 that was allowed to fly the M-colours was exclusively available in Far Far Away.

MID and cruise control with English language writing - I would have loved to see this in Japanese

The instrument cluster is a mixture of a CSi and a standard cluster with red CSi hands and the normal doubly framed clocks. A small "JPN" can be read in the lower part of the speedometer. ECE cars show "EG" and North American cars "SAE" in the same location.

Typical for Japan is that weird bulbous side panel in the boot along with the totally impractical installation method of the CD changer. It can be assumed that the extra cubby hole (where you cannot store anything lest you want it to fly around in the boot) was designed to make space for a golf bag.
Do you want one too?
You have to buy a car ex-JPN for this - although the part has a number it has also never been listed in the parts catalogue.

WARNING!, WARNING!, WARNING!
From left: Airbag-information on passenger sun visor. Filler flap: unleaded high octane fuel- "High Oku" = 95RON. The usual battery sticker - never read or never understood. After 10 yrs the first battery was found untouched, unchecked and devoid of water.

Left: service phone numbers for Japan. Right: sticker probably explaining that the hole below is just a breathing hole and not a "fill with a straw and be patient" hole.

Quite a bit of weight was waiting in the glove box - service books and illegible manuals along with inspection documents the size of a bed sheet leaving the impression of a country with a long standing paper tradition

Underneath the rear seat one can occasionally still find a routeing slip that was deliberately left there the day the seats were installed. Even yours might still have it in hiding! It lists all order options along with some additional production data.

Despite generally trying to stay true to the factory ideas but already having added that touch of black to the wind shield on the bonnet another item found its way into the car which to me was just the final touch and which quite obviously BMW forgot to install Those are possibly still available but the list price has gone up to close or above 200GBP a piece (240 EUR these days).

On a sunny day in 2007 chance took us to the M-GmbH in Garching (just North of Munich) where I was able (but rather without permission and under observation of M-security) to take those pictures of the homecoming.

Ever since then (and likely also before) cars of the Japan M-Individual series have been auctioned off in Japan and went to undisclosed locations where LHD cars are in use. Many have been spotted in the Middle East (lost) and at least two dozens roam German roads ("safe"). The Japanese supplies are dwindling away and the number of auctions has considerably dropped over the years. I assume that more than two thirds of the series has already left Japan for good by now.

This sums up what we have found out and refused to forget over the course of the last 8 years covering the only E31 special edition that made it into the parts catalogue.

Cheers
Reinhard

Dave

they all used to have:

Kontrastlackierung "cosmosschwarz", wie Schl. Nr. 303 im Dachbereich inkl. Abdeckung Lufteintritt Frontklappe

That means cosmos black roof and air guide plate between hood and wipers - but for red ones only, as I red Reinhards writeup above these minutes...

There is one supposed to be in Poland of whom I know of

All I can say is Wow! Thanks Reinhard

The only one E31 RHD ordered for Japanese Market is CB27010 (12/1990). A 850i Manual Gearbox. It's also the only one in Japan: No 850i LHD with manual gearbox was delivered to Japan.

Reinhard, thank you for posting all of this fascinating information. It does appear that there are noticeably less E31 cars cruising around in Tokyo. 10 years ago, I would see one out in the wild fairly often. This is no longer the case. I'd sure like to bring one to the USA one day, for obvious personal reasons

Cheers

The black snakeskin interior: is something I've got to see sometime!

Furthermore: long contemplation has led me to the conclusion that if I ever bought another E31 the interior is something I simply wouldn't compromise on, its possibly the thing that sets one E31 apart from another..

It will need to look something like this:

8er.org/forum/index.php?attachment/15675/

For this reason, its likely I'll never buy another 8, but if I did, a Japan spec would probably suffice

I can't help wonder what that interior would look like on a yellow E31..

WOW reinhard!

This brings back memories seeing the individual. I still remember the day you came to the uk to purchase this off my father back in 2004, even though it seems like yesterday

So happy to see pictures of her after so long. Still think about this awesome machine all the time. Good to see it is still alive and well and hope it stays this way for many many years to come.

Take care
Sam

Thank you Reinhard for the facsinating post!!