Hi John,

The easiest way to check the precise year and month your car was built is to get the VIN number and feed it into an online service such as bmwvin.com. BMW products often usually have the month and year of manufacture stamped onto the VIN in plain English, which is helpful. The engine will have been made at more or less the same time as the rest of the car — modern car construction methods generally don’t leave things sitting around in packing crates for long. The B47 diesel engine began replacing the old N47 unit in mid-2014 in most models, but obviously for some specific types, the switchover process takes some time.