This is partly because the nature of importing to the U.S. and Canada, through sole or limited importers, contrasted with a direct consignment or sale arrangement in Europe.
The U.S. market had Hoffman Motors Corp as the “sole importer” until approximately the end of 1974/beginning of 1975. But ownership — risk of loss, benefit of gain — was fully transferred from BMW A.G. to Hoffman Motors Corp before the cars went on the ship. And they were no longer BMW’s asset or problem: they were Hoffman Motor Corp’s!
The dealerships during this era were Hoffman’s dealerships, not BMW’s. So Hoffman maintained records — now unfortunately lost — of the cars’ Ports of Entry, delivering dealership, etc.
Once BMW of North America (“BMW NA”), a BMW subsidiary, assumed the role of sole importer for the U.S. — no longer an independent entity — information was maintained by BMW NA, including interior color, delivering dealer, and initial delivery date (to the retail customer). Sadly, this latter database is not in the possession of BMW Group Archives, and Archives appears to be completely ignorant of its existence: I’ve tried to tell them about it. But the no-longer-active-on-this-forum c.diesel, while working at a BMW dealership, ca. 2012, was able to pull up this data with nothing but my ‘76’s VIN. He performed this magic for me on a number of BMW NA-imported cars, to prove the data was there in the database.
Regards,
Steve