VIN discrepancy 3.2 Carrera
Discussion
Dear collective,
I wonder whether someone might be able to help. I looked at a 3.2 Carrera yesterday that looks very clean, however it has no paperwork beyond 2014, including service book, manuals - everything (apparently lost in a fire). Before giving up on this as a bad job I thought I would see what I could dig up on the car and have so far drawn a blank.
I spoke to my local OPC (Tewkesbury) and gave them the VIN number from the log book and they say there is no record of it on the system. Moreover the log book states it was first registered in 1999 when clearly it is a much older car (log book states built in 1987). The sales person at the dealer (not a Porsche specialist, selling on SOR for a client) seems to think the car had spent some of its life in Canada, so all a bit odd really. It is RHD, the speedo is in miles and the engine compartment labels are in English. There is no shipping label under the bonnet.
What would be the best way of having the VIN checked, possibly by Porsche in Germany if there is nothing on the UK database. Also is there anything else I can do to verify the legitimacy of the vehicle? I have already asked the dealer to get both the chassis and engine numbers from the vehicle itself in case DVLA have made an error somewhere.
Many thanks
I wonder whether someone might be able to help. I looked at a 3.2 Carrera yesterday that looks very clean, however it has no paperwork beyond 2014, including service book, manuals - everything (apparently lost in a fire). Before giving up on this as a bad job I thought I would see what I could dig up on the car and have so far drawn a blank.
I spoke to my local OPC (Tewkesbury) and gave them the VIN number from the log book and they say there is no record of it on the system. Moreover the log book states it was first registered in 1999 when clearly it is a much older car (log book states built in 1987). The sales person at the dealer (not a Porsche specialist, selling on SOR for a client) seems to think the car had spent some of its life in Canada, so all a bit odd really. It is RHD, the speedo is in miles and the engine compartment labels are in English. There is no shipping label under the bonnet.
What would be the best way of having the VIN checked, possibly by Porsche in Germany if there is nothing on the UK database. Also is there anything else I can do to verify the legitimacy of the vehicle? I have already asked the dealer to get both the chassis and engine numbers from the vehicle itself in case DVLA have made an error somewhere.
Many thanks
996Targa said:
There should be a sticker on the underside of the bonnet. C16 is a UK car.
Lungauer said:
... "There is no shipping label under the bonnet"....
LarJammer said:
Is it a WP0ZZZ number?
Canada/USA 911 would have the VIN something starting like: WP0AA....Edited by Rich_AR on Friday 14th February 20:52
Double check the VIN from the car itself rather than relying on the V5C as there can be an error in the VIN recorded by DVLA. Also if the car is registered to a later date then it could be when it was imported.
Ultimately you want Porsche to confirm the VIN is valid and the details correspond to the car otherwise buying it is a non starter.
Ultimately you want Porsche to confirm the VIN is valid and the details correspond to the car otherwise buying it is a non starter.
Thanks all. The dealer has come back with a photo of the chassis number stamped under the bonnet and it is different from that shown on the V5. It is a WPOZZZ number so this is more encouraging. I'll go back to OPC with this and the engine number to see what they can find. Agree about PPI and I will certainly do that but wanted to check this out first.
Mind you I'm wondering about the viability of fossil fuelled hobby cars at all these days. Not such an easy decision now that government and public opinion against the ICE has gathered such momentum, not without good cause it might well be said.
Mind you I'm wondering about the viability of fossil fuelled hobby cars at all these days. Not such an easy decision now that government and public opinion against the ICE has gathered such momentum, not without good cause it might well be said.
Lungauer said:
Thanks all. The dealer has come back with a photo of the chassis number stamped under the bonnet and it is different from that shown on the V5. It is a WPOZZZ number so this is more encouraging. I'll go back to OPC with this and the engine number to see what they can find. Agree about PPI and I will certainly do that but wanted to check this out first.
Mind you I'm wondering about the viability of fossil fuelled hobby cars at all these days. Not such an easy decision now that government and public opinion against the ICE has gathered such momentum, not without good cause it might well be said.
Interesting final point - I felt the same way last year so sold my air cooled Porsche’s and now just a run a lowly 996 C2. Feel much more comfortable only have £15k’s worth of skin in the game!Mind you I'm wondering about the viability of fossil fuelled hobby cars at all these days. Not such an easy decision now that government and public opinion against the ICE has gathered such momentum, not without good cause it might well be said.
There should be an aluminium VIN plate riveted to the body inside the luggage compartment on the right side with a viewing hole cut into the carpet. If you lift the carpeting there should also be a number stamped into the body aft of the fuel tank and ahead of the lid to the smuggler's box. These should match. That said I have it in the back of head that the number stamped into the chassis always has ZZZ as characters 4-6 while US (and Canadian?) cars have ABO on the ali VIN plate.
I wouldn't read anything definite into the lack of a sticker under the bonnet. I recently sold my 88 3.2 and it had no sticker in the original service book or under the front lid. It was inspected by porscheinspections.co.uk and this was seen as a complete non-issue. As I understand it the stickers came with the car's documentation pack and were dealer installed and could have been lost or damaged.
I wouldn't read anything definite into the lack of a sticker under the bonnet. I recently sold my 88 3.2 and it had no sticker in the original service book or under the front lid. It was inspected by porscheinspections.co.uk and this was seen as a complete non-issue. As I understand it the stickers came with the car's documentation pack and were dealer installed and could have been lost or damaged.
I think that when new there would have been a sticker on the underside of the bonnet and another in the service book with VIN, options, market code etc.
The ones under the bonnet do go missing due to accident damage etc. If you have the original service book the sticker should be there.
The ones under the bonnet do go missing due to accident damage etc. If you have the original service book the sticker should be there.
My old car's VIN did not match on V5 records, there was a spelling mistake, D to 0. It was a proper nightmare from every MOT, service to finally selling. If you were to fix that through DVLA, another hassle. My suggestion is ask the vendor the fix/adjust any registration discrepancy, the least they could do...
Cheers
Cheers
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