Porsche VIN

Has anyone noticed how the third digit of the Porsche VIN (WP*) is sometimes given as a zero and sometimes as a capital letter "O". I recently tried to do a carfax check on the '88 911 I was buying. The dealer gave me a VIN WP(zero) ... and carfax kept saying that that VIN did not exist. I assumed a problem with the carfax database, but after buying the car I looked at the VIN on the door and it looked definitely like a letter O, not a zero. Guess what? The carfax check went through and told me that the car had been titled before with a mileage higher than it has now. I started looking through ads for 911s and found that many people list their 911s as having a zero for the third digit, instead of a letter O. What is going on here? Are they all trying to make it hard to do a title check ?...

The WPO means: West germany, POrsche, so it's not a zero.
In the same line, WBA stands for West germany, Bmw, and WBS stands for West germany, Bmw Sport, as in The M models
Hope this helps, GeorgeK

Thanks for the response. Actually I got it wrong in my first meassage. The dealer told me it was WP(letter O), but carfax would not run the check until I changed the letter O to a zero. The etching on the door looks like a zero to me, because there is another zero further on in the VIN. If you are right, then carfax is erroneously rejecting all Porsche VINs! Also I am surpirsed that Porsche would make the letter O the same shape as a zero; usually the letter O is made fatter, so they will not be confused.

Porsche's code is WP0. It's always a zero. Of you see O 'oh' it's a typo.

When the current standardized VIN system came into existence, everyone agreed not to use any "O"s. They are all Zeros. The system is supposed to avoid this confusion. As long as everybody knows the system.

David