This page contains all of the regularly available upholstery codes of the E38. It also contains many examples of what was available through BMW Individual. 

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B6 – Flock velour Seats. Available only on non-V12 models.

B7/B8 – Basic (non-V12) or full (V12) leather, with Wool seats.

B9 – Épingle velvet & leather seats. Available only on non-V12 models.

F4/F5 – Basic (non-V12) or full (V12) leather, with rib fabric seats, diagonal pattern.

G4/G5 – Basic (non-V12) or full (V12) leather, with Alcantara & Nappa leather seats.

L7 – Nappa Leather with contrasting piping. Only found in facelift 740iL and 750iL models produced for the US market.

N6/O7/N8/O8 – Basic (non-V12) or full (V12) Montana Leather.

N9/R1/P1/R2 – Extended (non-V12) or full (V12) Nappa Leather.

P2/P3 – Extended (non-V12) or full (V12) Water Buffalo Leather.

P4/P5 – Extended (non-V12) or full (V12) Nappa Leather with Contour seats.

R9 – Extended (non-V12) or full (V12) Club leather.

V1/V2 – Extended (non-V12) or full (V12) Ambiente leather.

Z1XX – Sonderpolsterung, Special Series.

There were a number of E38s produced through BMW Individual, but as part of a ‘Special Series’, such as the well-known ‘Highline Carbon’ package, and other not so well known packages such as the ‘E38 Middle East Fashion Edition’. There were 2440 E38s produced under ‘Special Series’, with almost all of them having some form of special upholstery.

The only exception is the ‘E38 “Holz/Leder-Lenkrad” Hongkong’. That was a Hong Kong Special Series that added a wooden steering wheel, but included no other upholstery modifications. There were 209 E38s produced under this special series; as it does not have any special upholstery, it’s not listed here.

Z1XX – Sonderpolsterung. This is a code to designate “Special Upholstery”, seen in BMW Individual models. There were 8802 E38s produced with this upholstery code. Here are some of them. Additionally, there were 2 E38s with code (9990) “Special Upholstery”. They were pre-production models.

Important Note: The table with number produced counts the number produced with seating surfaces in the indicated color. Because of the nature of BMW Individual, very few are absolutely identical down to every last detail; as such, when compiling the numbers, if two different E38s have, say, Champagne Nappa Leather seats with Amethyst Nappa Leather piping, but one has black carpets and the other has amethyst carpets, both are counted under the same page. The production numbers in this section do not include E38s produced under a “Special Series”; those are listed above.