BMW Individual paint now offered for 1, 2 Series range

It is official – the special range of BMW Individual paint colours is now available for the 1 Series and 2 Series Gran Coupe line-ups. The first batch of cars with these paint have already been built at BMW’s Leipzig plant, with finishes including Speed Yellow, San Marino Blue, Verde Ermes Green and Nardo Grey.

There’s no less than 160 BMW Individual colours for the 1 Series and 2 GC models, and customers seem to have no issues with the surcharge for their choice of colours. Leipzig’s order books for vehicles with Individual finishes have already filled up until the end of the year, and the next major order is for a batch of 180 BMW 118d vehicles in Hockenheim Silver, Ruby Red and Sepia Violet for BMW Japan.

BMW said the lead time for special Individual finishes is about 10 weeks. If for some reason you don’t find the exact colour that you want on the BMW Individual configurator, well, simply create your own colour. BMW will create a special blend just for your car.

The painting facility in Leipzig has already been upgraded to handle smaller models series. This includes new paint supply systems and an integrated mixing area. The paintshop can now go over five vehicles with Individual colours in a day.

Handling custom paintwork requires additional staffs and supervision. Some processes, such as sign-off, can no longer be carried out by robots and have to be performed manually instead. The process is even more time-consuming and complex for matte finishes, as defects cannot be treated in the same was as gloss finishes. Instead, each matte-finished car takes 30 minutes longer to prepare. There are currently two matte colour options – Frozen Black and Frozen Orange.

Based on the current order list, BMW said yellow, blue, red and violet shades seem to be the more popular Individual colours. Click here to browse through the BMW Individual Manufaktur Visualiser.