318 ti purchased in Germany

[bones712]

The 97 318ti that i recently purchased was originally bought in Germany and brought here via ship.Anyways, what are the differences besides emissions for American purchased autos and those purchased in Germany?????

Thank you for any help that you can offer.

[1996 328ti]

They were all brought here by ship.

Have you registered the car?
I don't know how different they are besides the instrument cluster.
Do you have an OBD-II port under the knee bolster left side?

Are you military or state department?

[John Firestone]

Three obvious differences are that a U.S.-market car will have an OBD-II port; a German-market car won't. A German car will also have a headlight range adjustment control and functional fog lights: rear fog lights and, on those that have them, front fog lights that can be switched on with just the parking lights.

[pdxmotorhead]

Used to be german cars had different glass as well, seems like they had thinner nicer windshields. Still lam but about 1/2 the thickness.

They did not have cats till way later than us as well.

Used to be about 5K to get a German spec Porsche converted to US spec.

Dave

[John Firestone]

Originally Posted by pdxmotorhead

Used to be german cars had different glass as well, seems like they had thinner nicer windshields. Still lam but about 1/2 the thickness.

I don't know anything about differences in windshield glass, but that reminds me of another difference between a U.S. BMW and a German one: the U.S. car has its VIN plastered all over the place. One of the most obvious is a tag behind the bottom windshield. A German body shop will smear some caulk over the glass to black out the little window above the place for the missing tag. That makes me wonder if everyone gets the same glass these days.

[tiFreak]

I thought German cars had some green UV tint on all the windows too

[pdxmotorhead]

There were some Polarised windshields as well. Not legal in the US but they are awesome to drive in the dark with...

Dave

[bones712]

Thanks to all who offered there help and ideas.

[John Firestone]

You are quite welcome. I have no idea if what we wrote was of any help. It might not be a bad idea to tell us about the car, and touch on some of the things we mentioned or asked about. That would help and promote future responses!

[Bilal]

From what I found out the emissions here in Germany are better than the emissions in the States. But as for the full conversion $5,000 sounds about right. The lights need to be wired differently, glass changed out, and the door frames need more support.

[John Firestone]

Originally Posted by Bilal

From what I found out the emissions here in Germany are better than the emissions in the States....

Better in the sense that the TÜV is more reasonable and rigorous in what they approve (you could homologate a U.S. 'ti for Germany for a reasonable sum and the TÜV will recognize its VIN), but worse in that the standards have lagged the U.S. and are waived too often for the European automakers. Germany had no emission standards at all before 1986 because of that!