LCI year on F06

[bmwchriddy]

Hello All,

I purchased a 2015 F06 640i in NA, and I’m a little confused what year the LCI started. I see articles showing 2015, some saying 2016. My grill has 10 bars on each side, but my interior is updated compared to the 2013 GC I was originally looking at ( idrive knob, m sport wheel, etc.) was the LCI in 2016, but 2015 had updated interior and Msport package compared to 2013-2014? Any help is appreciated.

[Aesthetic]

Sticked thread: https://www.6post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1067822

[Qsilver7]

Originally Posted by bmwchriddy

Hello All,

I purchased a 2015 F06 640i in NA, and I’m a little confused what year the LCI started. I see articles showing 2015, some saying 2016. My grill has 10 bars on each side, but my interior is updated compared to the 2013 GC I was originally looking at ( idrive knob, m sport wheel, etc.) was the LCI in 2016, but 2015 had updated interior and Msport package compared to 2013-2014? Any help is appreciated.

What you're probably being confused by is that the forums are usually international...and all do not use the same definition of a car's model year.

The f06/f12/f13 facelift (aka LCI) occurs for the 2016 model year here in the US market. But the 2016 model year starts in 2015. The major exterior identifiers of the LCI model are some of the things you mentioned like the 9 bars/slats in the kidney grills, the change in location of the turn indicators from below the headlights to above the headlights in the "eyebrow" area...and the change of the side turn indicators from the front fenders to the side mirrors.

The interior changes like the sport steering wheel with the round air bag and the iDrive's larger "touch controller" (started with approx 3/2013 build date on F series only)...are not indicators of the LCI...these are production run changes that occured prior to the LCI. Other models may have gotten the larger iDrive touch controller on a later build date.

So when you read articles like was linked in the post above...when only a "year" is given...that doesn't necessarily indicate a specific "model year". It only indicates the year that the change took place. Again, the 2016 model year f06/f12/f13 models debuted in 2015...so the article is correct in regards to the year that the changes occured...but not necessarily means that it occurred for the 2015 "model year".

Also...in the US market...the federal government requires that all car manufactures include a specific digit in the VIN (the 10th digit) which conveys the actual/official model year of the car. This has been in place since the early 1980s. So if the 10th digit of your VIN is an "F"...then the car is officially a 2015 model year. If the 10th digit of your VIN is a "G"...then the car is officially a 2016 model year. You can see what the 10th VIN designations are by year in the chart below. It starts with alpha characters first "A"- "Z"...then moves to numerical digits "1"-"9"...then starts over again (excluding the exceptions listed in the chart to help prevent confusion):

Hope this helps with some of the confusion.

[bmwchriddy]

Originally Posted by Qsilver7

What you're probably being confused by is that the forums are usually international...and all do not use the same definition of a car's model year.

The f06/f12/f13 facelift (aka LCI) occurs for the 2016 model year here in the US market. But the 2016 model year starts in 2015. The major exterior identifiers of the LCI model are some of the things you mentioned like the 9 bars/slats in the kidney grills, the change in location of the turn indicators from below the headlights to above the headlights in the "eyebrow" area...and the change of the side turn indicators from the front fenders to the side mirrors.

The interior changes like the sport steering wheel with the round air bag and the iDrive's larger "touch controller" (started with approx 3/2013 build date on F series only)...are not indicators of the LCI...these are production run changes that occured prior to the LCI. Other models may have gotten the larger iDrive touch controller on a later build date.

So when you read articles like was linked in the post above...when only a "year" is given...that doesn't necessarily indicate a specific "model year". It only indicates the year that the change took place. Again, the 2016 model year f06/f12/f13 models debuted in 2015...so the article is correct in regards to the year that the changes occured...but not necessarily means that it occurred for the 2015 "model year".

Also...in the US market...the federal government requires that all car manufactures include a specific digit in the VIN (the 10th digit) which conveys the actual/official model year of the car. This has been in place since the early 1980s. So if the 10th digit of your VIN is an "F"...then the car is officially a 2015 model year. If the 10th digit of your VIN is a "G"...then the car is officially a 2016 model year. You can see what the 10th VIN designations are by year in the chart below. It starts with alpha characters first "A"- "Z"...then moves to numerical digits "1"-"9"...then starts over again (excluding the exceptions listed in the chart to help prevent confusion):

Hope this helps with some of the confusion.

This helps a lot. Confirmed I have a 2015 for sure but not LCI. Thanks for the help.