I think this guy needs a couple more cars!

[HelmetHead]

I've seen this list before and thought you folks would get a kick out of it also....

The Sultan of Brunei's complete car collection!

http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=78674

I counted 8 959's ...could be a bit off as the list of P-cars is several screens long.

Helmethead

[Christien]

Here's something interesting. Just for a kick, I pasted one of the 959's VINs into carfax. Invalid. Tried another one. Invalid. I tried 15 or 20 cars at random off that list, all invalid, even a 996, which would for sure be in Carfax's database.

A few more tries of other makes, and the only valid ones are GM cars. Everything else is invalid. It doesn't matter where the car was built or sold, every VIN should be in the database (especially of the major makers).

[HelmetHead]

Christien,
I also noted that many of the 911 vin's looked a bit strange.... I don't know if that list is "real" or not, my guess is its legit. Just do a search for the Sultan on google and look at some of his airplanes with gold sinks, etc......The citizens of Brunei eat rice if their lucky!!

Helmethead

[NICKG]

why would they be in carfax? they were never imported to the North american continent...No registartion here= no carfax. Manufacturers do not "supply" info to carfax

[Palum6o]

The most exclusive vehicle on the list is that Fiat Cinquecento, he only has one.

[Christien]

Originally Posted by NICKG

why would they be in carfax? they were never imported to the North american continent...No registartion here= no carfax. Manufacturers do not "supply" info to carfax

I'm not 100% sure on this, but carfax should turn up any valid VIN for any manufacturer that has ever registered a vehicle with the DOT. This is because all valid VINs (at least those since the system was standardized in 1982 to 17 digits) are decodable, based on manufacturer. The final 6 digits are always serial numbers, whereas the preceding 11 digits are all code for various options, including check digits. What this all means is that if the manufacturer code and basic model information has ever made it to the carfax database, any similar VIN can be decoded. There may not be a record of one particular car in the database (based on serial #), but carfax should at least be able to figure out what kind of car it is. In fact, you don't even need all 17 digits to decode a VIN, just digits 1-8 and digit 10.

I base this on the fact that I know VINs need to be verifiable without necessarily having records. When I register a lien against a car the VIN checker in the system will make sure it's valid, though it might not have any previous knowledge of that VIN. Hell, there are even javascript VIN decoders all over the internet, not linked to any database.

So I can understand carfax not recognizing a 959 VIN, because up until recently they've never been sold in NA, but it should recognize any 996, or Toyota, Chrysler, etc. The only exception to this I can think of would be one-off cars such as concept cars or perhaps one-off cars made for someone special (like a sultan), etc. but these aren't usually assigned VINs anyways.

[Overpaid Slacker]

Christien - the same thought occurred to me as NICKG.

The easy way to solve it is to have one of our european brethren run one of their VINs through carfax. livi? anyone?

[livi]

Wpozzz91zfs101454

[jorian]

I wonder how many he has actually driven? Seen?

[sketchers356]

That is a pretty poor collection. I mean what is the point of having 8 959s but no 356 or Miura?

[M.D. Holloway]

Whats with all the Corollas?

[Jims5543]

The sole Mazda he has, the Vin does not appear to be Valid either.

MAZDA

MAZ RX7 BL724 FD35114682

The 1st 4 digits should be FD3S not FD35.

[Rikao4]

car mag. about him and his cars..
some rare jaguar he had will not run..
Jaguar supposedly sent a 727 with parts and techs..
needed gas!
Rika

[Porsche-O-Phile]

They probably all smell like camel schit.

[Rikao4]

Camel *****,
I did see a real nice Benz in Saudi once....sheep in the back..
really
Rika

[TheMentat]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

They probably all smell like camel schit.

There are no camels in tropical Southeast Asia...

[Dottore]

Not sure about the VIN numbers but the Sultan's collection is legendary. The list looks entirely probable to me. I used to fly to Brunei on business and once sat next to a Scotsman who worked as one of the Sultans dozen or so full time mechanics. Job basically consisted of trying to keep the cars from deteriorating - as none of them are really used - there being only a few hundred kilometers of roads in Brunei.

It's really wretched excess at its worst.

Rumours have circulated for some time now that the Sultan will get rid of his entire collection because he's "grown out of it" - and the big auction houses are apparently resorting to all manner of cloak and dagger and intrigue to get the inside track on the selling the thing.

The most amazing cars in the collection (I think) are those he has had specially built. For example the Mercedes factory built him a couple of brand new 300 SL Gullwings that look exactly like the original thing, but utilize all the latest technology etc. There are many, many examples of these kind of one offs - including all kinds or Ferrari and Aston Martin "shooting brakes" - which are like two door station wagons.

[Danny_Ocean]

Carfax does not automatically receive data from manufacturers. Here is a list of their sources:

http://www.carfax.com/about/car_history/hcwhereinfo.cfm

[URY914]

Guess who this is (no it's not Wayne)

[Danny_Ocean]

Snowman...everything he touches turns to gold.

Originally Posted by URY914

Guess who this is (no it's not Wayne)