924Board.org

melon · Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2004 2:14 am Post subject: VIN and dealerships

Hey guys, have you ever been asked for your VIN # when ordering parts (like say an e-brake cable) for any of your vehicles, not just the porsches, from dealerships/parts stores? The reason I'm asking is because a co-worker went to order an e-brake cable for her toyota truck from a dealership/parts store and they want her VIN, I've never heard of it before, is this normal?

-Liz
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1980 n/a with EDIS and Megasquirt II Injection v2.684 betacode.
Porsche - Live it, Love it, Fix it

Neil924 · Joined: 18 Mar 2003 Posts: 4225 Location: Canada

A friend of mine was in a hit an boogie in a BMW 6 series and when he called about a new front bumper they asked for the VIN, name and address. When he falsed on the info, 2 police officers showed up. Apparently Mrs. someone important was hit in an intersection....
His car was soon stolen after that, he didn't file an insurance claim.

Chrenan · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 3903 Location: Canada

The only thing the ever ask me when I order parts for the 924 is the chassis number as there were changes part way through the 1980 model year that reference this number...
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1987 951 - M193 Version for Japan

stexch · Joined: 05 Dec 2003 Posts: 90 Location: Mankato, KS, USA

The last time I took a vehicle to a GM dealership, they recorded the VIN in their computer. I believe that this goes into the national GM dealer's data base, so that if you take it back later to a different dealership, they can check and see what work has been done in the past. They can also check to see if there are any recalls applicable to a given vehicle. Of course they also use it for marketing their own products. I don't know whether or not they also sell this information to third parties.

Doodle · Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2004 4:19 am Post subject:

I believe the VIN is used to provide positive accurate identification of the vehicle in order to avoid the possibility of ordering the wrong part. In the case of the 924, (as with most Porsche's) they were in a constant state of evolution over the course of their production run and the only way to positively identify the correct part for a given car is by use of the VIN. If you have the Porsche Parts and Technical reference manual or PET you will notice many instances where the VIN is used to identify part changes/upgrades even though all the parts are meant for a 924. This being said, even providing the VIN in Porsches' case because of the rapid evolution of the 924 line doesn't always guarantee you will receive the correct part. Apparantly their record keeping couldn't even keep up with the rapid pace of change.
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Doodle
Pre 77.5 Mars Red

melon · Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2004 6:16 am Post subject:

thank you guys

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1980 n/a with EDIS and Megasquirt II Injection v2.684 betacode.
Porsche - Live it, Love it, Fix it

kaffine · Joined: 13 Jun 2003 Posts: 644 Location: Las Vegas

Where I work it's almost the only way we will sell you a part. I work on Freightliner trucks and the option sheet is very long when you order a truck choose from 3 manafactures of engines 2 manafactures of trans and diffs you can even choose what type U joint is used. Model numbers mean nothing to our parts department because all the options they look up almost every part by vin. With all the options on a car and how they can effect other parts that you wouldn't think would be diffrent because of that option.
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80 924
80 931

The best desciption of an atom boils down to something unknown is doing we don't know what.
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