98 pre-production M3 has a 328ic VIN???

["Ahmad S. Hamzawi" <hamzawi@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all, I have a very interesting problem I need your insight on:

I am in CA and dealing with someone on the East coast that gets BMW cars
from Germany, some independent car dealer. These cars are used and done to
US spec, but with the german turning lights and the tempered glass headlight
covers also so I know for sure they are coming from Germany.

The issue I have is that the car was recently titled by this dealer in MA as
a 97 328ic 3 weeks after its arrival to the US. The VIN # on the car itself
lists as a 97 328ic but the car in fact is a pre-production 98 M3 so the
dealer says. The dealer has a MA title and the german briefs. The german
briefs only list the VIN # (a stamp with a line in which the VIN # is
written on in ink), but no indiciation of the model of the car. The car is
under full warranty, and BMW NA just sent the dealer notification that the
warranty was transferred from Germany to the US and is valid  BUT for the
328ic. I don't want to take it to the dealer and have them mess it up by
ordering 328 parts for the car when I need M3 parts...etc.

So, I don't want to buy this car unless I can get the VIN switched to an M3.
The dealer said they can't do this since there was no 97 M3 convertibles
when the car was manufactured (first few off the line in 97 - 5/97 to be
exact and first registered in germany in 6/97) so they couldn't have
assigned a M3 VIN back then.

Having said all that, I called BMW North America and they unequivocally said
that the car is listed in NA as a 328ic and they even called BMW Germany and
they also said the car is a 328ic and they said there is no way it can be an
M3.

Even more boggling, is that I had the car taken to a BMW dealer who said it
was for sure an M3 and checked all the VIN #'s on the body panels etc. One
thing BMW NA said was that sometimes when a preproduction car comes out,
this VIN issue crops up but is taken care of by making amendments to the VIN
or something to that effect - and I have no amendments on mine or on record.

So, I don't want to register the car here in California as a 328ic and not
only that, get insurance for the car as a 328ic (and worry if it gets
totalled that I get the price of a 328ic) and then deal with the hassle when
I ever sell it when the buyer questions why the title says 328ic.

Any thoughts as to what I can do? I am going to call BMW NA one more time
and hope I can do something, otherwise I might just avoid the hassle and not
risk it. Do you think it's possible to do something at the DMV such that it
lists as an M3 so I can get an M3 title and then get insurance for the M3
conv.  not 328ic?

Regards

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