Euro VIN searching

Danglerb · 07-12-2007, 01:32 PM

I've got the car fax unlimited search for a couple more weeks, so I decided to play with it a bit. Starting from WP0ZZZ92ZES842000 and just bumping the last digits up one at a time. I only tried through 013, but found 4 cars in the database. Makes me wonder just how many Euro's were brought over. Sad to say half the cars last entries were failed smog inspections. If I can I think I would like to run the whole production series of Euro VINs.

Normy · 07-12-2007, 06:30 PM

My own '85 S2 was owned by three people before me, and I've spoken to the PO [*******] and the mechanic that owned the car before him. The first owner was a jeweler in Ocala, Florida; he killed himself in this car in his garage.

Porsche USA in Atlanta does not have access to the cardex for our "gray market" cars. That, or they simply don't want to go to the trouble to find the thing. I suspect that Porsche in Stuttgart probably has basic details about these cars, but you'd have to go there and sprechen sie Deutch in just the right way before you'd convince them to give you information like this, which is likely burried way down in the archives.

-My own take on the whole thing isn't scientific, but it comes from something that someone over on Rennlist said one day, and is backed up by what a mechanic who dealt with the subject said. The long and short is that both mentioned that about 500 ROW cars were imported to the United States between 1984 and 1986. These are "gray market" cars, and they required extensive federalization. I personally suspect that 50% of these are now junked.

Prior to the '84 model year, these cars weren't popular to bring to the United States. Americans really didn't understand the performance difference, and the $5000 cost to import/federalize a car scared off most buyers. Really, the S2 cars were probably brought over either as status symbols or as devices for laying waste to mid-'80's corvettes.

N

Danglerb · 07-12-2007, 10:54 PM

Sheesh Normy, thats gruesome.

Porsche USA is happy to sell us parts, but I wouldn't expect any other help from them. What I am using is public information gathered by these "info" companies from DMV and other records, autocheck and carfax. Simple stuff, was the VIN ever registered in the US, then maybe states and dates and mileage for inspections or title transfers.

$ vs mark was favorable in the early 80's. Seems like a lot of military guys took advantage of it and brought back cars. A fair number slipped in without any changes, or nothing permanent.

Mostly I am just a bit curious, but if I can get some solid numbers I'll go for it. Errka used the free "record check" function of carfax to screen all the US VIN numbers, shouldn't be too hard to do the same for the Euro production ranges, then I might just type in the smaller number of VINs that show some records exist (to stay within the terms of service).

Danglerb · 07-25-2007, 02:05 AM

Erkka just posted on Rlist the results of checking the Euro VIN production sequence against the Carfax database, looks like 1300 cars came to US and Canada. CarFax starts with 1980 data, but only 81 up were run, not sure why. AutoCheck has given me some results on 78/79 where CarFax won't even accept those shorter VIN.

477 81-83 928S
631 84-86 928 S2

Thats a lot more than I expected to see. The plain, non S Euro looks like the rare car.

http://forums.rennlist.com/rennforums/showthread.php?t=367219

One thing I would note is that I have seen a fair number of incorrectly reported VIN numbers, my car has a B on some paperwork (like the actual registration card) instead of the 82xxxx. Once into the system maybe its harder to correct than to keep using B.

rhjames · rhjames's Garage

too bad 1980-data wasn't shown----particularly with the split between the 4.5L Euro's and the 4.7L Euro S models

Danglerb · 07-25-2007, 11:31 AM

Maybe Erkka will read this and give the 80's a shot?

My guess is that 80 might have been the biggest year for importing S models.

I would like to know how to tell the S from non S by VIN as well, but I was planning on just looking over a few VIN's I have to see if a pattern is obvious.

Danglerb · 07-25-2007, 07:28 PM

My mistake, I saw a 928 listed on ebay as 1980, with 17 digit vin, and didn't notice the seller claimed some entry problem and it was actually an 81.

www.autocheck.com has a similar free record check to the CarFax, and it will accept a 10 digit VIN as long as you put 7 blanks at the front.

VIN: 92A0801099
Vehicle: Porsche
Records found for this vehicle: 15

Is there an online reference for this "elementary" VIN stuff I don't know?

Its embarrassing to have to admit I don't know S about 928 VIN numbers.

Danglerb · 12-02-2007, 05:00 PM

Latest update.
http://forums.rennlist.com/rennforums/showthread.php?t=394457

byrdman454 · 12-04-2007, 04:33 AM

Does anyone have an active account? I want to check the VIN on a 1980 928.

Thanks
mike

Danglerb · 12-04-2007, 10:29 AM

1980 would require autocheck.com with blanks at the start of the VIN to make it 17 digit.

I don't know the policy of Pelican, but most forums prohibit public requests for VIN searches. The threads get out of hand, and eventually a complaint comes from carfax or autocheck regarding their intellectual property.

Google search using the VIN is often worthwhile to find old threads about the car.