I'm pretty sure that if the numbers listed below are accurate, they are manufacture dates, not model years, as the US only had M5's in 1988, and the big jump in 1987 is probably the manufacture count for all the US M5's.

From: SSBuckley@aol.com
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1998 01:46:57 EDT
To: Mformation@halcyon.com
Subject: Re: BMW Mformation #213
Status:

Sorry about the partial last message, lets try it again.

In response to the question regarding production quantities of the M5, there
is some good information in the book A COLLECTORS GUIDE - BMW M-SERIES BY
Chris Rees, published in Great Britain.  The following production information
is included which apparently came directly from BMW M GmbH:

M5 (E28)

1984   25
1985   267
1986   478
1987   1435
1988   36

TOTAL (E28) :   2241

M5 (E34)

1988   331
1989   2339
1990   3089
1991   2261
1992   2313
1993   982
1994   600
1995   334

TOTAL (E34) :  12,249

The book does have information regarding the number of imports to Great
Britain.  I would be very interested in how many were imported to the US and
even better, by color.  Can you tell anything by the VIN #?

Thanks for the great info - I enjoy the reading.

Steve Buckley
'91 M5  (VIN WBSHD931XMBK06042)