Author Topic: VIN  (Read 484 times)

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Offline rjbaren

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VIN
« on: Saturday,May 25, 2024, 08:41:13 AM »
If I wanted to do a VIN or VHR report, how do you do it when our VIN is 6 digits and a letter?

Offline 4129R

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Re: VIN
« Reply #1 on: Saturday,May 25, 2024, 08:44:06 AM »
I have spent 8 months debating VIN numbers with the UK registration authorities (and we made the car in the UK).
« Last Edit: Saturday,May 25, 2024, 09:48:51 AM by 4129R »

Offline BDA

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Re: VIN
« Reply #2 on: Saturday,May 25, 2024, 09:32:19 AM »
Well the VIN sorta isn't just six digits and a letter. I guess, formally it is eight digits and a letter: YYMMIIIIM where YY is the year and MM is the month of manufacture. IIII is an incremental part and M is the letter designating the market. Of course, the VIN has to be viewable from outside the windshield but that plate shows only the incremental and market parts of the "formal" VIN. I have no idea what various DMVs used for a VIN back when the cars were new. So I don't really know what the VIN of a Europa is. I guess it depends on how it was registered. When I registered my car in a new state after more than twenty years off the road, I had forgotten about the "formal" VIN and had it registered as "3635R."

None of that is probably useful for answering your question. As you probably already knew, Carfax requires 17 characters. I tried a few examples from the registry that looked likely to be driving cars including  my "3635R" at https://www.vehiclehistory.com/ and got nothing.

So I guess in the world of Carfax or VHRs, our cars don't exist!

Offline rjbaren

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Re: VIN
« Reply #3 on: Saturday,May 25, 2024, 10:50:31 AM »
I have tried numerous sites, and they all require 17 digits.  Even with a license plate nothing comes up.

Offline berni29

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Re: VIN
« Reply #4 on: Saturday,May 25, 2024, 02:32:22 PM »
Hi

It seems that in the US you can register a car as anything you like. Mine was a Lotu Champion with the Vin number 3940R.

Berni
Also have some +2's

Offline rascott

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Re: VIN
« Reply #5 on: Saturday,May 25, 2024, 08:29:31 PM »
i registered my 1969 s2 in california as a lotus vin# 541846. dmv had no problem.
i never tried to get a vin report.....

Offline 314159td

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Re: VIN
« Reply #6 on: Saturday,May 25, 2024, 11:05:06 PM »
You likely won't be able to get a report, and I'm not sure how much help it would be anyway.

I have an S1 with a S2 front end grafted on...that's definitely not on any kind of report. Nor the countless other bodge fixes in 40-odd years of ownership.