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the fact that mine starts off as JM1 and that i knew from work that the 10th is the year, made me go looking.Mooneggs wrote:I was talking with Steve one day about this and he was telling me this about his mx-3:
JMZEC13B200131770
J = Japan
MZ = Mazda
EC = MX-3
13 = coupe
B = 1.8 V6
2 = manual transmission
00 = Hiroshima plant
rest 6 numbers is just serial no.
in those numbers interior and ext. colours are encoded, interior trim, equipment etc.
plus for which market the car was made for
so how do you get year and number out of the last six??
the last six in mine are 222620World Manufacturer's Identification (WMI)
The first character in the WMI sequence represents the country where the vehicle was manufactured. Countries like the United States (1 or 4), Canada (2) and Mexico (3) are represented by numbers while other countries such as Germany (W), Italy (Z) and Japan (J) are represented by letters.
The second character refers to the manufacturer. The characters can be either letters or numbers. For example: Jaguar (A), Dodge (B), Chrysler (C), Jeep (J), Buick (4), Cadillac (6) or Saturn (8).
The third character represents the vehicle type or manufacturing division.
Vehicle Description Section (VDS) and Check Digit
The vehicle description section consists of five characters (the 4th to 8th characters) which identify everything from the body style, engine type, and braking system to model, series, restraint system, etc. The 9th character is a VIN accuracy check digit which verifies the previous VIN numbers. It is determined by carrying out a mathematical computation developed by the Department of Transportation (DOT).
Vehicle Identification Section (VIS)
The vehicle identification section includes the last eight characters in the VIN number. The numbers identify the model year (10th character) and the assembly plant for the vehicle (11th character). A number or letter may represent the model year. For example: 1998 (W), 2000 (Y), 2007 (7) or 2008 (8).
The 12th to 17th characters are the actual serial number of the vehicle-these last 6 digits make the vehicle unique (think of DNA). It can also help to identify whether the vehicle was the first, the hundredth, or the last vehicle off the manufacturer's assembly line.
Never said you get year. I know the production date of mine by looking at the sticker in the door jamb. I only said the last six digits show the production number(IE serial number) For example, My MX3's vin ends in 000048. The next one off the assembly line is 000049, and so on. This doesn't change with vehicle manufacturers. Once production surpasses 999999 for a particular vehicle model, it simply gets reset to 000001. It wouldn't make any sense to encode colors, interior trim, etc in the last six. Think about it, if they did, then each vehicle with the same color, options, etc would have the same vin!!!Mooneggs wrote:I was talking with Steve one day about this and he was telling me this about his mx-3:
JMZEC13B200131770
J = Japan
MZ = Mazda
EC = MX-3
13 = coupe
B = 1.8 V6
2 = manual transmission
00 = Hiroshima plant
rest 6 numbers is just serial no.
in those numbers interior and ext. colours are encoded, interior trim, equipment etc.
plus for which market the car was made for
so how do you get year and number out of the last six??
gotcha... sorry I misread... I realize you can get the date from the door jam. So in the example VIN it is car 131770 for that model year? so what happens if it is at a different plant or were mx-3's for the entire world made at one plant?muttpower wrote:Never said you get year. I know the production date of mine by looking at the sticker in the door jamb. I only said the last six digits show the production number(IE serial number)Mooneggs wrote:JMZEC13B200131770
