{"id":727,"date":"2010-06-19T09:39:05","date_gmt":"2010-06-19T15:39:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mcoupebuyersguide.com\/?p=727"},"modified":"2010-08-06T23:12:13","modified_gmt":"2010-08-07T05:12:13","slug":"pre-production-s54-m-coupes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.mcoupebuyersguide.com\/index.php\/2010\/06\/pre-production-s54-m-coupes\/","title":{"rendered":"Pre-Production S54 M Coupes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"2001<\/a>
2001 Estoril Blue M Coupe - Production Date: August 9, 2000<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last week, I came across this 2001 Estoril Blue M Coupe in Richmond Hill, ON, Canada that besides its great condition and very low mileage did not appear otherwise significant. The seller makes mention that this particular car is one of twelve pre-production S54 coupes. I had never heard of such a thing and decided to see what I could find out. After some research and consulting with a couple resident coupe experts Z3Couper and JoshS, we determined that there were indeed twelve S54-engined coupes produced in 2000 starting as early as March 16, 2000. Here’s how we came to this conclusion.<\/p>\n

JoshS remember reading a Roadfly posting about a similar car years ago and even more amazingly was able to find it again. This Roadfly posting<\/a> details the purchase of LK60000: a Laguna Seca Blue over Laguna Seca Blue M Coupe with an S54 engined built on April 12, 2000. There’s a little more information about it in this Roadfly posting<\/a> as well. While it has the lowest VIN number of all S54s, it appears that both LK60001 and LK60002 were produced before it in March of 2000, and LK60003 was produced two days prior on April 10, 2000. The buyer goes on to say on the CarFax\u00a0 report it says it was first imported into New Jersey on January 2, 2003. The buyer thinks the car may have been sent to Germany to shake down as a pre-production unit. We’re speculating it may have always been in the U.S., but because the factory is a foreign trade zone, in order to make it sell-able, it required some special paperwork to have it “imported”. New Jersey happens to be where BMW NA is based. The buyer mentions it had never been titled before despite being almost 3 year old, so it appears that some of these cars (maybe all) were sold as CPOs directly by BMW NA once they were finished with them.<\/p>\n

After looking through the M Coupe production data, I guessed the estoril blue coupe pictured above was VIN LK60004 (as he says it was the 5th of 12) and was later able to confirm this with the seller. It then follows with the conclusion that these twelve cars are VINs LK60000-LK60011. Here’s they are:<\/p>\n