Trivia... 99 Z3 Coupe Graphit Interior Trim

In the interest of adding content to beef up Bimmerfest, here we go. Unless you notice details like some of us do, this may not interest you. If you are into BMW trivia or a Coupe enthusiast, this is right up your alley.

For about 3 months during the 99 Z3 2.8 Coupe model year, BMW had a Graphite interior trim option. In EPC it is listed as "Graphit". Most, if not all of the graphit parts are NLA. I have tried to order the center console pieces for a customer in the past. The package included graphit on the gauge surrounds, HVAC knobs, center console, interior door handles and shift knob. No wheel tabs on 99 Z3 coupes. Door hockeysticks were interior trim color, not graphit. This package was not available on roadsters. Just coupes, as an option. Just part of the model year. Then it was dropped. In real life, it is darker than matte chrome and looks great. More shiny than matte chrome and fewer fingerprints. I spotted this one on Ebay so I figured I would cross post some pics. This one is even more rare since it has beige interior. In real life, although I thought I would hate it, matte chrome and beige (or in this case Graphit and Beige) look great.

As some of us discussed at HC, a used Z3C 2.8 would make a great beater car. 99s can be had in the low twenties with under 20K miles. Great performer. It looks like I will buy a Z4 however, so the beater will have to wait a few more years.













Der Z3 Coupe und Graphit

on M Roadsters and M Coupes?

I have actually seen a White M Roadster with an ALL beige interior (no two tone seats and even all plastic and carpet was beige) and a red M coupe at Santa Monica BMW (owner's car on display) in Imola Red with a beige interior.

That's actually a good question.

BMW will not release color popularity info.

However, if you are ever on Jeapardy, know that 2-tone black/beige was listed in the original 99 M coupe brochure, but it was never produced. With black trim too. Sad. Only Beige Nappa/Beige Oregon (dot)/Beige trim (trim includes carpet) made it into M Coupes. Available on all cars 99 - 02.

Beige was introduced on M roadsters in the 01 model year. Same Beige Nappa/Beige Oregon/Beige Trim option as coupes, only adding beige A-pillar, windshield trim, and visors on the roadster variant. No beige interior was available on 98-00 M roadsters.

As I have said many times on the .org, the Z3 coupe comes out ahead of all of the Z3 cars when it comes to beige interiors. The Z3 coupe got sport seats... same shape as M seats except different stitch pattern... standard on every car. The kicker is, even though Z3 2.8, 3.0, etc. roadsters with beige interiors had either Oregon or Classic leather, the Z3C got 100% Nappa leather interior. No dot pattern Oregon leather. Nappa leather is much more expensive and more breathable and just plain way better looking than the dot Oregon leather in my opinion. In this respect, a Z3 coupe with beige interior is a lot nice than an M coupe or M roadster with beige interior. In fact, a Z3 coupe interior is ALWAYS better than a comprable Z3 interior, because all Z3Cs got Nappa, not the lower-cost Z3 leathers. Somehow the leather in the Z3C slipped past BMW pricing people.

Make sense? I would never choose a beige M coupe or roadster interior by choice. It would be a different story on Z3 coupes. Just my opinion.

I just noticed somthing - in case you overlooked it (probably didn't) the headlamp switch is Graphite too! now that looks strange!

I wonder what other obscure differences between model years are out there?

PB

Originally posted by Polar Bear
I just noticed somthing - in case you overlooked it (probably didn't) the headlamp switch is Graphite too! now that looks strange!

PB

Yep, you are correct. I actually have a graphit one in stock if anyone wants it for some reason.

.

Picked up Z4 brochure yesterday. Looks like the base trim is called (ironically) "Graphite" as well. Pics in brochure show "aluminum" which I assume is a marketing word for Matte Chrome.

How does it compare to the brushed aluminum? The pics look similar, if slightly greyer.

I never understood the difference between matte chrome and brushed aluminum, BTW - I only saw the latter as the option on BMWusa. Do you have a pic of the chrome? Thx!

Originally posted by JonM
That's actually a good question.

Beige was introduced on M roadsters in the 01 model year. Same Beige Nappa/Beige Oregon/Beige Trim option as coupes, only adding beige A-pillar, windshield trim, and visors on the roadster variant. No beige interior was available on 98-00 M roadsters.

Make sense? I would never choose a beige M coupe or roadster interior by choice.

When I was trolling the SoCal dealers for a good deal on an '01 M Roadster, I almost bought a white with all beige interior but the lowest they would go was 40K and I was able to find my color combo for 41K. My idea was that if I could get the car cheap enough, I'd convert the all beige to an M Roadster beige/blk. If I had gotten it, I'd been working with you guys on that conversion. Has anybody else with all beige checked with you guys on that?

Originally posted by scottn2retro
My idea was that if I could get the car cheap enough, I'd convert the all beige to an M Roadster beige/blk. If I had gotten it, I'd been working with you guys on that conversion. Has anybody else with all beige checked with you guys on that?

People have asked but no one has pulled the trigger. The best plan would be to do it in small steps. Go to black floor mats, then black carpet, then the dash I-panel, center console, etc. If you picked your pieces right, you could do it for about $2500 in factory parts and maybe $1000 for custom stuff from us.

Originally posted by JonM


People have asked but no one has pulled the trigger. The best plan would be to do it in small steps. Go to black floor mats, then black carpet, then the dash I-panel, center console, etc. If you picked your pieces right, you could do it for about $2500 in factory parts and maybe $1000 for custom stuff from us.

That would have been perfect. I tried to get the car for around 35 or 36K, but they wouldn't go for it. Once I had the interior done, I would have put a couple of AC Cobra type blue stripes on it just to finish it off. Oddly enough, with the ALL beige interior, it came with a black top, not tan.

A woman had switched to sport seats in her Non-M and went with Beige Leather/Black Leather. I saw her post that she had gotten them back but has not installed them. She ended up getting hers recovered. I would imagine she spent $1000 on a hide and a half of leather and suede and then whatever her upholsterer charged and the cost of the used sport seats. She was going to do the door panels as well but I have not heard how that is going.

Originally posted by AndyM
A woman had switched to sport seats in her Non-M and went with Beige Leather/Black Leather. I saw her post that she had gotten them back but has not installed them. She ended up getting hers recovered. I would imagine she spent $1000 on a hide and a half of leather and suede and then whatever her upholsterer charged and the cost of the used sport seats. She was going to do the door panels as well but I have not heard how that is going.

I believe you're referring to 'roadsterwench' on .org. I'm working with her on a date/time where I can help her with the seat swap. The only thing I worry about is the possible connector mis-match depending on her car (a '99 2.8) and what year her seats are. I think if there's a mis-match, I think it'll go easier if the car has the older connectors. It looked like on the seats, they just combined the two or three older connectors into the one large one.

My neighbor with a '98 M Roady is thinking of getting an S54 M Roady - Black with Beige interior and Beige top (I haven't seen that one before).

I told him about your estimate earlier in the thread re: converting to black/beige.

We'll see if he gets the car

Assael in Monrovia had a new 2002 Silver/Black M / S54 still in stock last Thursday...

Originally posted by phrider
Assael in Monrovia had a new 2002 Silver/Black M / S54 still in stock last Thursday...

Thanks, I'll pass that onto him

Last night I helped Roadsterwench of .org with the seat swap.

Before I got there I was worried about 1 thing: Sometime between the '98s and the '00s the seat connectors changed (she has a '99), so you got it, I was worried there might be a connector mis-match depending on what year her seats were (which was not known).

Got there and checked and YEEHAA! the connectors were the same! So we went ahead and started with the passenger seat. Got the old seat out (requires 13mm and 16mm socket) and had to swap over the pyro seat belt tightener/buckle to the new seat, no problem (required a Torx # 47). The new passenger seat was also missing this little black box which we also swapped over no problem:


Put the new seat in and checked it out. Both motors functioned fine (forward and back a little noisy) and when she started the car, did not get the airbag warning light. Here is the comparison between the new seat look and the old one:


Looks great! Before starting on the driver's side, we did a visual comparison between the new driver's seat and the removed passenger seat just to check for anything that might be missing. Well, the little black box above was on the new driver's seat, but there was no connector and 'ribbon' circuit to hook up to it like the one on the passenger seat below:


Being pretty late and not being sure what was up, we took the cautious path of stopping and waiting until she could ask .org today what was up.

It turns out that the 'ribbon' circuit is a passenger sensor that only goes in the passenger side seat for the airbag deploy/no deploy logic. It appears the leather shop, when putting the seats back together, put the little black box in the top picture on the driver's seat by mistake and caused us a little confusion. Should be able to complete the job soon.

That is awesome.

Very sweet seat job. BTW, how does the color compare in person? The pics look just a smidge lighter and yellower than the beight leather of the interior...

Originally posted by The Roadstergal
That is awesome.

Very sweet seat job. BTW, how does the color compare in person? The pics look just a smidge lighter and yellower than the beight leather of the interior...

The pic represents the difference pretty well (the pic was taken at night with indoor lighting in the garage). The new seats are really 'tan' and black while the interior is beige, but I think she is planning on converting more things (but not all) over to black, so there will be less things to mis-match with.

The suede is very nice. (When I first heard suede I was thinking bling-bling pimpmobile stuff, but it wasn't like that at all). Very smooth suede that looks a lot like that suede Vince has on that special M3 steering wheel he has (I'll have to find that thread and post a link to it). Very nice material. I'm no leather expert, so JonM may want to chime in here, but I believe the suede is Marissa in black and both materials come from Spinneybeck.

Looks much sportier than the factory seat