3 Series from Spartanburg, SC

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deutsch100

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Recently I got a really cool magazine from BMW called BMW Innovation, and it's full of interesting BMW ideas, engineering and firsts in automotive design and features.

What's weird is that is says that the first American made BMW was a 3 Series, and it rolled off the Assembly line in 1995 in Spartanburg, SC. It then says the first Z3 was in 1996.

I thought the Z3 was the first American made BMW in S.Carolina? I have never seen a 3 Series, that was produced in the USA, but I doubt BMW would be wrong in their own publication.

???
 
D

deutsch100

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dzervit said:
They are not wrong. 9/8/94 was the day the 318i first rolled off the line. The first Z didn't come until 9/20/95.

The US factory even has its own website so you can learn all about it.. http://www.bmwusfactory.com/
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Was that the 4-door sedan, or that 318ti hatchback thing? How many 3 Series were made at the factory, and for how long? Were they sold in the US, or exported?

I couldn't find anything on the website that talked about a 3 Series in 1994. Maybe it was just 1 hand assembled 3 Series??
 
dzervit

dzervit

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4-door sedan. Not sure if they actually produced them for sales or export... no production information on it. I think it was a few so show off for the media. I'd call or write them and ask!
 
Kirby

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This is total speculation, but the Z3 technically could be considered a 3 Series variation. Haynes covers both the E36 and the Z3 in the same service manual, and it states that alot of the chassis components are the same. I'm pretty sure that the Z3 drive train and suspension is mostly E36.
 
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deutsch100

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Kirby said:
This is total speculation, but the Z3 technically could be considered a 3 Series variation. Haynes covers both the E36 and the Z3 in the same service manual, and it states that alot of the chassis components are the same. I'm pretty sure that the Z3 drive train and suspension is mostly E36.
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Yeah Kirby, I find it hard to believe that BMW could spend hundreds of millions of dollars to tool, and create an assembly line for the E36 3 Series in South Carolina, if they were never mass produced in the USA. I don't understand why the BMW Innovation magazine just didn't say that the factory was opened for the production of the Z3?
 
jrt67ss350

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NOPE! The E36 3 series was produced in production numbers at the SC plant for a year or two before the Z3 even started rolling off the line. They only built 4 door sedans there, and they were all 318i's - no 6 cylinder cars. They were sold at dealers in the US, but I'm not sure if they were exported or not. The plant was originally built for production of 3 series cars. It was originally thought that the plant would build the US-bound 3 series cars and Z3, but after it was determined that the worldwide demand for the Z3 would be so great, the plant was restructured to build the Z3 exclusively. I think there was a while when they were building both the Z3 and the E36 at the plant.

The father of one of my best high school friends was the powertrain assembly shift supervisor at the plant during the E36 production and early Z3 production. We used to tool around town during high school in one of the early US-built E36 318i cars and we even got to drive one of the first pre-production 1.8 liter Z3s to roll off the line before they even started shipping them to dealers.
 
B

Big Daddy

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Kirby said:
This is total speculation, but the Z3 technically could be considered a 3 Series variation. Haynes covers both the E36 and the Z3 in the same service manual, and it states that alot of the chassis components are the same. I'm pretty sure that the Z3 drive train and suspension is mostly E36.
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You are correct, however the differential is e30, while most everything else is e36.
 
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