BMW E53 Manual cars

[cragglemiester]

As stated, I contacted BMW UK to see how many manuals were sold through the E53 life-cycle. To my surprise they actually responded.

In total (UK only) there were 25,567 E53 cars registered and of those only 724 were manual gearboxes.

That's only 2.83%

I wonder what the US % was.

[Ricky Bobby]

Holy friggin crap. Thats awesome they responded. I may have to email BMW NA and see if I get a response (doubtful)

[cragglemiester]

I was shocked too to be honest but fair play, needless to say I've asked for my car details haha.
Let's see if they reply to you then we can get an idea to the true rarity of the manual box

[motordavid]

R/B,
Back in the dinosaur days, on RoadToad and the first iteration of this fine board, I recall a couple posts were someone contacted BMW NA mother ship and asked the same about manual trans Xs.

The response then, from fading memory, was 'we don't release that information' and 'we don't have a data record of manual transmission X5s'...the 2nd response being utter BS as they have records of every car made/sold and its options, I would bet.

NEway, hope you get a response from a summer intern or someone, who may not know they aren't supposed to put out any data, or be 'friendly' to us hoi polloi that buy their stuff.
GL, mD

[Qsilver7]

Originally Posted by cragglemiester

I was shocked too to be honest but fair play, needless to say I've asked for my car details haha.
Let's see if they reply to you then we can get an idea to the true rarity of the manual box

Until...or if they even get back to you...you can use this VIN decode website to see how your bimmer came equipped: BMW Model Archive · BMW VIN Decoder · bmwarchive.org

Just click the link above...and type in the last 7 digits of your VIN...and answer the CAPTCHA question correctly...and you should get info about your car like, build date info interior color code and options etc.

[cragglemiester]

Originally Posted by Qsilver7

Until...or if they even get back to you...you can use this VIN decode website to see how your bimmer came equipped: BMW Model Archive · BMW VIN Decoder · bmwarchive.org

Just click the link above...and type in the last 7 digits of your VIN...and answer the CAPTCHA question correctly...and you should get info about your car like, build date info interior color code and options etc.

I've done that buddy but there was a 15 month gap in build date to initial registration. I asked why

[deepblonde]

Originally Posted by cragglemiester

As stated, I contacted BMW UK to see how many manuals were sold through the E53 life-cycle. To my surprise they actually responded.

In total (UK only) there were 25,567 E53 cars registered and of those only 724 were manual gearboxes.

That's only 2.83%

I wonder what the US % was.

I'm guessing the U.S. percentage would be even less, as they only had the 3.0i e53 available with a manual transmission,

Where as in the U.K. you had both the 3.0d and 3.0i available with a manual;

And in Australia at least,
I've seen only one 3.0i with a manual,
but about half a dozen diesel e53 stick shifts!

[tylercoey]

took a lot of hunting, but i have a 3.0 manual (kansas city, MO - USA)