Quote:
Originally Posted by keyur The VIN is decoded as follows for Chevy vehicles :
The total length is 17
It starts with MA6
VIN (MA6xxxxxBBxxxxxx )
9th character signifies the Month (A=Jan, B=Feb, C=Mar and so on)
10th character signifies the Year (A=2010, B=2011, C=2012, D=2013 and so on)
So the above shown VIN would decode to be a Chevy from Feb 2011 (BB = Feb, 2011)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Poitive
Torquedo seems to have checked out a few VIN no's and there seemed to be some confusion [ link ] as most recent Optras on the forum seemed to have BB at the 9th and 10th character). As he explains below, there seems to be another explanation. |
Quote:
Originally Posted by Torquedo
1) On the Chassis - Indicating when the chassis was manufactured.
2) On the Placard - Indicating when the engine and other stuff was put on the Chassis as in the when the car was completely assembled. |
Had a talk with the GM guys as well as my dealership.
I asked the dealership manager to provide me some VINs of the Optras that he has sold in the last couple of months (Not the entire VINS, just the first 11 characters - to protect customer privacy)
The manager diligently called back and gave me the following info :
ALL the Optras had the 9th and 10th digits as BB.
As per our previous (flawed) logic, it would mean that all of these Optras were from Feb 2011!
But then he provided me some more info which was astounding -
ALL other vehicles (including the ones in his showroom and stockyard) like the
Cruze, Spark, Beat and Captiva also had the 9th and 10th digits as BB !!
The best part was that the
new Beat Diesel (which did not exist in Feb 2011) also had the VIN as
BB.
This was leading me to believe that our entire concept of decoding the VIN might be flawed. So I talked to a friend at GM, who asked around and from the info I received, this is the conclusion that I have drawn :
1. There is placard near the bottom right of the left hand front door. This has the VIN (17 characters) and a Manufacturing date (2 characters)
2. Under the bonnet, right in front, just below the wipers, the VIN is imprinted (17 characters)
The VIN on the placard and the VIN under the hood are
IDENTICAL.
The 9th and 10th characters (BB) have
NOTHING to do with the manufacturing date.
I have concluded that during the manufacturing, GM must be allocating a chunk of these numbers for a period of say 6 months or a year. Each number is unique and is allotted to every new vehicle, irrespective of the date of manufacture (hence the BB for each and every car!)
The manufacturing date on the PLACARD (which in my case is
DB) is the actual indicator of the date the vehicle was "born'.
So, I suppose that there is no point in decoding the VIN. The actual indicator is the manuf date (2 characters) which are decoded as follows :
1st character signifies the Month (A=Jan, B=Feb, C=Mar and so on)
2nd character signifies the Year (A=2010, B=2011, C=2012, D=2013 and so on)
So yippee!! my vehicle is from an even newer lot (the num is
DB), so the vehicle is from April 2011!!
I will be posting a pic of the placard soon for a visual guide.