Bit of a Brain Bender on my BMW's VIN

Rukus

Rukus

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IF you do a bit of research on the BMW (i'll post pictures) You can tell from the VIN alot of different things. For instance tje 11th digit is the assembly plant code. As follows:

11th digit - assembly plant
A Munich, Germany
B Dingolfing, Germany
C Dingolfing, Germany
D Dingolfing, Germany
E Regensburg, Germany
F Munich, Germany
G Munich, Germany
J Regensburg, Germany
K Munich, Germany
L Spartanburg, South Carolina

NOW, on my VIN wehre the 11th digit is... i have "8". I don't see an 8 in that break down of the 11th digit.

Take a look at these pictures i have attatched.

Can anyone tell me why it would say "8"?????
 

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Kilomph

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Every VIN search engine I use says that my car is a regular 325i. I called up the dealer and asked them to look up my vin and it showed 325i, then I asked him if he could look any deeper, not sure what he did, but he came back and said that it definitly was an iS. Anybody else have this problem? Real OEM doesn't even have a 325iS listed, it does have 318is and 320is though...
 
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epj3

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Kilomph said:
Every VIN search engine I use says that my car is a regular 325i. I called up the dealer and asked them to look up my vin and it showed 325i, then I asked him if he could look any deeper, not sure what he did, but he came back and said that it definitly was an iS. Anybody else have this problem? Real OEM doesn't even have a 325iS listed, it does have 318is and 320is though...
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I vs. IS doesnt change the vin at all. The i and is are exactly the same - in fact you can buy a 2 door I, with sports seats, better obc, and a limited slip and it wouldn't say "is" even though it would and could be 100% the same. The IS was just an extra package, but it is the same car. They won't change your vin for seats [:)]

BTW Real oem only has 318 and 320is listed as "is" becuase thats what they ALL were post 88.
 
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epj3

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Rukus said:
epj3

that vin decoder link you posted, gives me an error message:
\
Error : Input data was not valid

whene i enter my VIN... odd???
Click to expand...
Are you POSITIVE you're not getting numbers/letters messed up? Like an 8 instead of a B? Check one of the other vin stickers, like the fenders, trunk, etc. THey are all over the place.
 
jrt67ss350

jrt67ss350

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epj3 said:
Are you POSITIVE you're not getting numbers/letters messed up? Like an 8 instead of a B? Check one of the other vin stickers, like the fenders, trunk, etc. THey are all over the place.
Click to expand...
I know for a fact mine is a "9" on all stickers on the car. So, why is mine different than the standard scheme?

BTW, my VIN worked on the page that you posted, Eric, but it didn't say where the car was built.
 
Abdoman

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epj3 said:
I vs. IS doesnt change the vin at all. The i and is are exactly the same - in fact you can buy a 2 door I, with sports seats, better obc, and a limited slip and it wouldn't say "is" even though it would and could be 100% the same. The IS was just an extra package, but it is the same car. They won't change your vin for seats
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I'm not sure what you mean above, but manufacturers track what packages were put on the vehicle in the factory, so the VIN can tell you if it's an I or an IS.
 
jrt67ss350

jrt67ss350

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Rukus said:
I don't think Vins track every little Detail that is a custom accessory. It wouldn't tell you if you had the 6cd changer over a tape deck.
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It would tell the BMW dealer that if the car came from the factory with it. But, that's not actually decoding the VIN to get that kind of information - that's just BMW associating the build sequence number from the VIN with the information about your car that they have in their system.
 
Rukus

Rukus

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vins were introduced as a (inter)national way of making a car unique and supplying information about that make/model of car. mostly as a categorizational/security/tracking tool, from what i understand.
I can't imagine that VIN would directly tell what options your car does/ doesn't have... but your VIN might fall into a category in which those options are included in. like jrt67ss350 said.... not to repeat history or anything... lol
 
Abdoman

Abdoman

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The VIN does track factory installed options - I have purchases several used BMWs and specifically, my 328is (I no longer have) had listed sport package, HK sound, leather etc...
 
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epj3

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Abdoman said:
The VIN does track factory installed options - I have purchases several used BMWs and specifically, my 328is (I no longer have) had listed sport package, HK sound, leather etc...
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It does at the dealer - but the vin itself ONLY tracks the car type, and gives it a unique ID for the government. The government doesn't give 2 shits if it has sport seats. In fact the coupes are called "sedans" in the books of DMV's. The vin won't tell if you have leather, etc.

Like i said it will to the dealer, but that's it.

The "model specific" numbers is what tells it what model it is, what year it is, etc.
http://www.bmw-z1.com/VIN/VINdecode-e.cgi
http://www.analogx.com/cgi-bin/cgivin.exe?Mode=Decode&VIN=WBAHD1313KBF08374&Submit=Decode
 
Rukus

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yeah, A VIN isn't some code sent from God to tell if you have sport seats or a 6cd changer or not. Its just an identification for that MODEL of car. NOW i am sure your particular VIN is categorized at a BMW dealership.... and under that VIN in its categorization is what it was sold with from dealer and what was extra installed at factory.

did any of you even look at the pictures i posted? IT tells you what each part of the VIN means. Please take a look, and if you can prove that a VIN does more than that, then let me know. Not being arrogant, but i would like to see how that works.
Take a look at the Pics i posted tho, its a complete breakdown of the BMW VIN.

PS: ALL VINS are standard to ALL cars. Its an international ISO standard of categorizing a vehicle. A domestic VIN is identical to a BMW VIN (same amount of digits, each digit in each space meaning same thing). Just the letters and numbers mean something else. IE the 11th digit for a chev vehicle would have a letter "E" that meant "built in L.A. California) (if chevs are even built there.. lol its an example) even tho that letter is already used in a BMW VIN, thats okay, because the make and model of the car was well define before you even GET to the 11th digit.
Imagine building a VIN system for the thousands of different cars on the market that included whether or not sport seats and a 6cd changer was included. Think about it
 
Abdoman

Abdoman

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No - I don't think you understand my point - I completely agree with you, but the VINs mean more to the manufacturer and to the buyer.

Decoding a VIN is fine, but really who cares? What the majority of the used car buyers want to know is what options are installed, which are tracked (not decoded) by the VIN number.

Almost all manufacturers that have any quality control use tracking numbers. Car manufacturers use the VIN (somewhat) The VIN can tell you much more than what the decoder does. I was trying to help out kilomph by letting him know that his factory installed options can be found out by contacting the dealer with his VIN.
 
Rukus

Rukus

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Abdoman said:
Decoding a VIN is fine, but really who cares? What the majority of the used car buyers want to know is what options are installed, which are tracked (not decoded) by the VIN number.
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Not trying to be rude, but that makes absolutely no sense. Ever run a carfax report on your car? or any car that you are going to buy? It doesn't give you VIN information about what options are installed in the vehicle (its not supposed to and it will never do that). MOST used car buyers are interested in the VIN so they can be notified of recalls, odometer fraud, whether the car was in an accident and had been put back on road, any damage the car has incurred, lemon check, who owned the car (what it was used for)
and the such (all this has to have been document by DMV tho)

I think the majority of used car buyers don't care to taek the time to research a VIN to find out what options are installed when they can see THAT with their very own eyes. They are much more concerned with the aforementioned.
 
Abdoman

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Dude, what the hell. The vin decoder doesn't tell you if your car has been in a wreck. It doesn't telll you if if there are recalls or odometer fraud. Carfax does that by tracking the VIN, not decoding it. Do you know how many times people have posted on this board asking if their car has a sport package on it? Do you ever look for cars on ebay? The VIN is a great way to find info about the car - yes I know that. I have used Carfax every time I purchase a used car. I have also called the dealer to ask what options were on the car just to make sure it had what they said it did. On one car, I even found out it was still under manufacturer warranty and the dealer didn't know it.

I'm not disagreeing with, it's just that I found the VIN decoder kinda useless, but interesting.
 
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