Quote:
Originally Posted by ky0u
They do on the 88s because they used the updated valences but the old style DBs. Weird little transition period. I personally hated the early model rears
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I owned a 1989 E30 325i 2-door sedan. Back then BMW called the "Coupe" a 2-door sedan in the owners manual. We bought the car new in November 1988. It was a July 1988 build. If I remember my E30 history correctly, and I'm 99.999% sure, MY '89 was the first year the Euro-style bumpers were added to the E30 body for the USA market. The '89 E30 was the optimal year to own because the "is" version of the M20 (M20B25) became the standard engine offered in the USA market, the bumpers moved to the Euro-style plastic covered bumpers (still different than the real Euro bumpers) and the airbag was not added (until the 1990 model year).
A review of the tail panel part numbers on realOEM does show a 1-year period tail panel unique part number. Interestingly the USA Euro bumper shows as a 06/1988 part number change, which would be congruent with start of the 1989 USA market model build.
When I researched all this decades ago, I found that the MY '89 rear tail panel was the limiting factor of swapping to the USA Euro-style bumpers. I still do not believe chihuahua's statement is correct about the Euro Bumpers bolt right up to E30's built before 9/87 because the rear tail panel for USA market cars was different to accommodate the 1970's and 1980's-mandated DOT 5 MPH bumper requirements of the USA market.
But I've wasted too much time on this, this morning.
