you are thinking 2006.
That's ok.

Not positive what the "s" stands for, but I always thought the "i" stood for "inline". Am I right?

Nope, because my 4.4i is a V8

Isnt the letter T already designated as the "touring" version (sport wagon) in the 3 and 5?

As it is a German car, you would need an "e" I believe, to be correct. BMW can't do that cause they wasted the "e" designation on the eta engines.

An "i" would work for Italian/Spanish/French/English though. I am sure that i means injection on some current BMW models, but not necessarily.

I recall that the 1800/2000/2002 ti models had Solex carbs. I just looked it up, and apparently ti meant Touring International (and it wasn't a wagon).

I think that the conclusion is that BMW wants some letters after the numbers to differentiate the model. Otherwise people might accidentally confuse a 330 coupe with a 330 Caterpillar (30 tonne) excavator.

because the Z4 has both 3.0 and 3.0si, and uses the displacement nomenclature (like the Xs)...there must be difference to separate the lower output and the higher output engines

therefore to keep things consistent, (Xs use higher output), the X3 and X5 uses 3.0si now

:nanana:

guessing the s does mean sport[ier]

!ouch: duh! stupid me...

personally, I don't believe even BMW knows - probably just some advertising company's idea

I know it stands for "Ixpensive to fix":bustingup

no wonder every BMW has the i
:band:

Z8 didn't
;)