Okay, newbie question . . . . . I was told by an acquaintance of mine, and a BMW owner himself, that the "30" in "330i" indicates a 3 series with a three liter engine, and thus 325 indicates a 3 series with a 2.5 liter engine. But since I'm now a Bimmer owner myself, and have read on these forum pages that the 325 has the same size engine but just has less horsepower, I am confused as to the various designations and their meanings. Can someone explain the various designations to me? And what does the "i" indicate?

[roppongicorolla]

right up to this current model year, the first number was the series designation and the next two numbers indicated the engine displacement. i would have been a four door, iT a wagon (excuse me, touring), iC a Convertible and Ci a coupe. in the 80's, there was also an 'e' for economy? which would have also got you a four door sedan.

with the e90, looks like all the numbering convention went out of the window, at least in the USA. I think other parts of the globe still follow the same numbering system.

[Bimmerista]

PS to the reply above - BMW has in the past alternated between non-concording number designations (where numbers did not in fact correspond to exact engine displacement - for the E30 for ex) and concording numbering, which was the case for the e46.

So now they are back to the future....

[David328M-Sport]

Originally Posted by CMD

Okay, newbie question . . . . . I was told by an acquaintance of mine, and a BMW owner himself, that the "30" in "330i" indicates a 3 series with a three liter engine, and thus 325 indicates a 3 series with a 2.5 liter engine. But since I'm now a Bimmer owner myself, and have read on these forum pages that the 325 has the same size engine but just has less horsepower, I am confused as to the various designations and their meanings. Can someone explain the various designations to me? And what does the "i" indicate?

Hey CMD,
In the USA the 330 and 325 are indeed 3 litre engines. The US 325 is a detuned 330 as you correctly stated as well as having a single stage intake, while the 330 has a 3 stage intake system. In understand that this quite strange setup has to do with environmental issues & laws etc. Strange setup as it implies the 325 doesnt meet the laws. Surprising that this would be the case.

Elsewhere like Europe & here in Australia, the 325 is a 2.5 litre engine with 3 stage intake.

BMW go through different phases with engine designations and model numbers matching exactly. Then they become nostalgic and re badge the cars with different numbers to the engine sizes, like my old 2.5 litre e46 which was the 323 when the e46 was first released in 1998. They then changed it to the 325 mid season and boosted its power.

The i as I am led to believe stands for injection as in fuel injection but I do stand to be corrected.

I hope that this info explains matters for you. Take care.

Cheers.

Thanks fellas, I think I'm begining to understand.

[Jack Dotson]

Originally Posted by David325Australia

Hey CMD,
In the USA the 330 and 325 are indeed 3 litre engines. The US 325 is a detuned 330 as you correctly stated as well as having a single stage intake, while the 330 has a 3 stage intake system. In understand that this quite strange setup has to do with environmental issues & laws etc. Strange setup as it implies the 325 doesnt meet the laws. Surprising that this would be the case.

Elsewhere like Europe & here in Australia, the 325 is a 2.5 litre engine with 3 stage intake.

BMW go through different phases with engine designations and model numbers matching exactly. Then they become nostalgic and re badge the cars with different numbers to the engine sizes, like my old 2.5 litre e46 which was the 323 when the e46 was first released in 1998. They then changed it to the 325 mid season and boosted its power.

The i as I am led to believe stands for injection as in fuel injection but I do stand to be corrected.

I hope that this info explains matters for you. Take care.

Cheers.

The "i" is for the inline six. BMW is about the only manufacturer that still uses the silky smooth inline six.

[dencoop]

Hello To All,

Jack- I am not sure if you are sarcastic, but the poster before you was correct about the "i". It does not stand for Inline....

The "i" stands for Injection. BMW started adding "i" back in the old days when they had some cars with fuel injection and others without. All US spec BMWs have an "i" on the back. In Europe, BMW offers diesel so they keep using the "i" or "d". Some people leave it out of advertising. The "a" stands for automatic.

"i" stood for "injected," or fuel-injection engine, when it was introduced
in the early 70's. Every BMW car since then has been fuel-injected.
By early 1980's (influenced by the last gas shock), a fuel-efficient
high-torque
small I6 engine was introduced, and it was called the "eta" engine. It
was first used in the 528e. BMW avoided the "i" designiation probably
to indicate that the "eta" engine had less max horsepower than contemporary
BMW "i" performance engines of comparable displacment; "eta" has a much
lower rev limit due to the long piston travel required to generate high
torque in
a small engine. Later on, the "eta" engine was used in 325e, and a stripped
down version of 325e was marketted as simply 325 (no sunroof etc.) It
should
be noted that the "eta" is a fuel-injected engine too despite its lack of
"i"
designation. In fact, I believe "eta" was one of the first BMW electronic
fuel-injected engines using Motronic 1.0

Hope this helps.

Thank You.

[rprasad]

In fact, in the 80s in the UK, there was a 316 (maybe even till the early 90s, I'm not sure). The 316 was not fuel injected (it had a carborator), but the 318i used fuel injection.

[Bimmerista]

And waaay back the 2002 used the "i" designation as well. At that time it was much like DI is today WOW. A Bosh unit that clogged up faster than arteries after eating French fires with mayo.

[ward]

"i" also meant international at times

like in the 2002tii where the other i is for injection like discussed above

[xyz123]

Originally Posted by ward

"i" also meant international at times

like in the 2002tii where the other i is for injection like discussed above

I think you are right. I remembered a 2002ti that had carburetors but only saw one once that someone had bought in Europe and brought over himself. It was rumoured to be even faster than the fuel injected 2002tii but was not sold in North America. I did a web search and found a description of it here:

http://www.collectablecars.co.nz/gal...w2002ti_71.php

[Robin_NL]

OK. 'I' stands for INJECTION, nothing more, nothing less, not'International' or inline six: that's the biggest nonsense I 've heard so far

D=diesel I=(petrol)injection.

Very simple indeed.
edit: Until some 10 years ago Mercedes used the 'E' in their model designation like: 190E, 230E, 260E, 300E, 500E(built at Porsche) or 280SE 560SEC etc.

The 'E' stood for'Einspritzung' which means(fuel)injection.

[jrct9454]

Yeah, it's amusing to read this stuff when you're an old fart like me - always find it kind of funny that I just assume all "true" BMW enthusiasts know more about the history of the marque than in fact is the actual case.

Yes, the "i" was all about injection, at a time when that was relatively rare.

And yes, both BMW and MB, which historically used the model designators to tell you about engine displacement, started fooling around with these numbers about a decade ago, and now they don't seem to mean much at all. When this practice first started, it was about the marketing types being worried that replacing a well-known model with a relatively snug spot in the hierarchy with a new engine [which might have been bigger or smaller, or more powerful or less] would somehow be "confusing" - thus you have MB with a 1.8 liter 4 that carried the designations of C180, C200, and C230, all using variations of the same 1.8 liter block, but with different tuning, intake, and some blown and others unblown. BMW has done the same. Actual displacement no longer corresponds to the model designators, but this, as noted above, is hardly new with the E90.

Also as noted above, MB decided to use the "E" as a prefix to denote the midsize ["Executive"] model, and this in turn caused them to drop the old suffix "E" which had stood for Einspritzung, again from the era when injection was something special.

Anyway, it's a case of keeping tradition when it's convenient for marketing purposes, and throwing tradition away when it's not. The marketing dept always rules...

[ward]

Originally Posted by Robin Hood

OK. 'I' stands for INJECTION, nothing more, nothing less, not'International' or inline six: that's the biggest nonsense I 've heard so far

ok inline is rediculus, but you're telling me the 2002tii stood for injection injection, splain that one to me lucy!! (ricky ricardo reference)

[LEDZEP]

"i" is to "injection" as "d" is to "diesel"

Later, how to recognize different shapes from far away.

[Robin_NL]

Originally Posted by ward

ok inline is rediculus, but you're telling me the 2002tii stood for injection injection, splain that one to me lucy!! (ricky ricardo reference)

2002 tii stood(so STOOD, this was decades ago man ) for 'Touring International Injection'

There you are

I thought it was ridiculous to just type down that I stands for 'International' or Inline Six even if there are 316 i s/318i s and 320 i s with 4 potters around here

So some of us need to think before they type such things. No offence, but if you don't know for sure, just say imho or something like that.

[xyz123]

In my opinion, arguing about meaning of “i” may be fun but it is really pointless and unimportant - it has no meaning for today’s cars. There was a BMW in the early ‘70s that was carbureted and had an “i” designation so as Ward said, at one time it must have had another meaning in addition to “injection” or “injected”. I make no claim to having detailed knowledge of BMW history but I do know that such a car existed, I saw one.

[voltron1011]

Don't forget about the "L" designation on the 7 series. It stands for Long, as in longer body/wheelbase.

[ward]

anyone else remember the L6, or L7

I think that stood for leather

[E24]

Originally Posted by ward

anyone else remember the L6, or L7

I think that stood for leather

Actually stood for Luxury - but it was a ton of leather - a lot of cows sacrificied for these cars - I owned one

I can't stand this nonsense of reversing letters - one year it's a 750il -next model it's a 750li - it's all crazy.

So goes life.

[David328M-Sport]

Originally Posted by ward

anyone else remember the L6, or L7

I think that stood for leather

Nice one Ward. Ok then. Beat this. 325xi stands for 325 xenon injection!!!

[xyz123]

Originally Posted by Bimmerista

And waaay back the 2002 used the "i" designation as well. At that time it was much like DI is today WOW. A Bosh unit that clogged up faster than arteries after eating French fires with mayo.

Hello Bimmerista. As far as I remember, the fuel injection system used on the 2002tii was a mechanical one made by Kugelfischer; I don't know if it's arteries clogged up or not. I could be wrong but I don't think electronic fuel injection (maybe Bosch as you say) was introduced until the 3 series.