It was twenty years ago today...

On July, 28 1989, likely within the holiday period, the Diamond Black coloured CB00000 with an interior named Anthracite cloth rolls off the assembly line. It is likely that this is a stealth rollout - the true beginning of mass production is still 9 months away.

The car can be imagined to have looked like this specimen:

CB00000 and likely all other cars produced in 1989 will never find their way to a customer but remain interned as test mules. In the end they will go the way of all prototypes and be destroyed. The crash test vehicle pictured below may have been one of the two 1989 E31s coloured Alpine White and with a dark interior: CB00022 or CB00033

There are no engine or gearbox numbers for CB00000 through to CB00026 which is another telltale sign for a prototypical car.

Until the end of 1989 no more than 67 cars of the type E31 will be produced. The largest part of them CB00000-CB00055 are ECE LHD cars with an automatic gearbox. From Aug. 29, 1989 another 6 ECE LHD cars with manual gearbox, 2 RHD cars and 4 cars for the US market will be assembled.

The following table shows all 67 1989 cars sorted by VIN blocks.

It is only logical that some of the first production cars will be utilized for pictures in the technical literature and marketing publications.
CB00002 is the first E31 with the order option „S903 SPECIAL CHECK TRADE FAIR/PHOTO VEHICLE“. Until the end of 1989 no less than 6 cars receive that special treatment and become centerfolds.

During the year of prototypes a number of cars needed to be prepared in order to fulfill the requirements of other countries. Those cars are identified by the order option "S904 SPECIAL CHECK TEST VEHICLE". 8 different country variants can be identified until 1989 ends.

Amongst those cars produced in 1989, 4 of a total of 11 cars can be found with the order option "S260 FLAT TIRE WARNING SYSTEM": CB72000 (USA) & CB00037/38/52 (ECE). This safety feature has been discussed initially in the literature but quite obviously was not fit for use in 1989/90, hence it vanished without a trace to only make a reappearance in the E38 series option lists.

CB00037 is the first car which in theory can be described with "full options". During the early days there were no "Individual" options - those came into production only 1991/1992. There is no information what S940A might have meant during those days.

Almost all cars produced in 1989 have been lost without a trace. The only exemption is CB00044 which almost survived only to be parted out in 2008 to live on in a number of younger E31 bodies. CB00044 showed identical order options to the above CB00037 with one little detail differing: SA260 was missing, pity that

CB00044, production date: December 12, 1989

Of course not all of the prototypes came equipped with such splendour. Let us have a look at the light weight CB00004 and smile:

The oldest E31 that is known to still roam the German roads is CB00105 produced on Feb. 23, 1990. Up until and including February 1990 the monthly production rate remained low. One can say that production of the E31 started in earnest in March 1990.

Likely the first E31 that went to see the world without being interned in the Dingolfing factory first is CB00136 produced on March 10, 1990. Imagine the joy and pride of the owner taking delivery back then....

The first documented car with a warranty history is CB00154, built March 13, 1990. It was taken to the workshop for warranty replacement of batteries (possibly the first ones) in September 2000! with only 1700 miles on the clock. The rarely used oldster can possibly be seen roaming the Costa del Sol in Spain.

Unfortunately the data that has weathered the last two decades is exhausted here. Data and pictures shown above have been provided by the generosity and enthusiasm of Jud, Gunther and RainerB12. Thanks for that

...it´s been going in and out of style
but it´s guaranteed to raise a smile

Cheers
Reinhard

Glad you like it here

Much of this topic was recycled for CB57001 when it made its appearance last year.

Cheers
Reinhard