porsche vin Brain bender

[foibles]

ok...so my understanding is that porsche vin allocation adheres to a reasonably sensible standard. unless...for instance....lotus esprit.

my understanding is that one vin character.... from memory position ten.... uses a letter to denote build year. for instance...j is 1988, k is 1989 and l is 1990.

and that the last 5 digits denote serial number.....not for the year....but for the model.

which is why i am perplexed to see an 89 porsche with a vin that has 'k' at position ten, meaning 1989, but a serial number of 420xx.

and then i see a 90 model porsche....with vin 'l' (meaning 1990) but a serial number of 408xx. and also with v5 stating date of first rego 1/1/1990.

so if the serial number is by type and not year..how can a 90 model porsche have a newer vin than an 89?

and if the serial number is by year....how can a factory have trotted out 800 cars in a day?

also....i can see no way it would be possible to register a car on the first of january, prior to its vin being allocated, let alone affixed.

thoughts anyone?

[Scrump]

Does the letter denoting build year refer to a calendar year as you imply?
It may refer to the model year which often begins earlier than the calendar year. See here:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_year

[Ultuous]

Not familiar with the specifics of the Porsche system, but digit 10 is indeed usually ( 'd suspect always) model year, and the serial number (which depending on build vols can be 4 rather than 5 digits) can reset on year.

[C4ME]

The year code represents model year (MY) not calendar year. MY 1989 was made approx September 1988 through July 1989. MY 1990 was made approx September 1989 through July 1990.

The serial number resets to zero for each model year.

[foibles]

thank you all. your knowledge is greatly appreciated.

c4me.....out of curiosity....why no august production? is it holidays, or maintenance month?

and is that a porsche standard...or a euro manufacturing standard?

[C4ME]

foibles said:

thank you all. your knowledge is greatly appreciated.

c4me.....out of curiosity....why no august production? is it holidays, or maintenance month?

and is that a porsche standard...or a euro manufacturing standard?

The factory generally closes down during August for holidays and changes to production lines. There are sometimes cars with late August production dates and it is fluid as depends on whether next year's models are a continuation of the previous year or a major change.

I know Europeans generally treat August as a holiday month to head to the beach but I am not sure how the different manufacturers deal with it.