Higher serial numbers are closer to first production?

[blue_myriddn]

"Higher serial numbers are closer to first production and serial number 0001 is last one off the line for that year."


I have now heard this stated a few times and I have to say that I am curious to know if it is there is any truth to it. Given that we have a month/date stamped on the drive side of our car, this should be a relatively easy question to answer. For example - my car VIN 00002 was manufactured in Dec, 2000 according to the label below:

I have to say, I could see this going a couple ways:

1) serial # assignment is fairly random with cars moving across the line haphazardly - this is the case with most automotive manufacturing as far as I know.
2) serial # assignment is sequential with production - given how orderly the Japanese are and how low production was for the NSX, it is quite possible they ran the cars through the line in sequential order

 

[jwmelvin]

VIN: JH4NA2164YT000268 ('00 model year)
Mfg: 11/'00

 

[shawn110975]

since the NSX chassis has 2 Stamped VINs, one in the engine bay and one on the front firewall I would say that as the chassis were moving down the line getting stamped I doubt they skipped and put 002 then stamped 009 right behind yours.
and I doubt they stamped the last one made that year first then worked the way down to 002 ya know

so logic would tell us that yours was 002 off the line, are you getting ready to sell it and have a great selling point LOL

 

[blue_myriddn]

That is a useful data point - with 284 NSXs produced for the US in 2000, VIN [URL=http://www.nsxprime.com/forum/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=2]#2 68[/URL] should be near the end of the line which your sticker appears to demonstrate. We can also see that the end of the 2000s is pretty close to the start of the 2001 production as well.

Interesting and thanks for sharing.

so logic would tell us that yours was 002 off the line, are you getting ready to sell it and have a great selling point LOL

Mostly it has been a fun novelty at car shows and a great way to demonstrate just how rare the NSX. I do get a lot of people who find the #2 vin to be quite amusing.

 

[docjohn]

Have we not done this before???If not we should have to analyze how they produced them

my 96 produced 11/95 ....#259 ...

 

[RPM217]

Have we not done this before???If not we should have to analyze how they produced them

my 96 produced 11/95 ....#259 ...

Which VIN are you using, the chasis, or your 00 engine?

 

[docjohn]

lol chassis silly....how bout that nyse today

 

[blue_myriddn]

Have we not done this before???If not we should have to analyze how they produced them

It seems like it would have been done before, but my searching couldn't track down something like it.

 

[RPM217]

lol chassis silly....how bout that nyse today

Crazy stuff, Airline computers down, NYSE down, Greece and PR bankrupt, Trump running for president, this worlds going to shit fast!!!!

 

[CStricker]

Cool thread.

I have a 2000. VIN ends in 66, manufactured 11/99.

 

[Brylek]

Ben, the person who created the original database with colors is currently working on this project, he is collecting pictures of VIN stickers and putting a new database together.

If you are willing to contribute to the project please take a picture of your VIN sticker and sent it to me at [email protected] so I can forward it to Ben. I personally sent him over 30 different pictures with vin stickers that I have either seen in person or found on the internet, I can assure you that this information will never be published publicly.

 

[VR4Rob]

Seems almost impossible that Honda would have known the exact amount number they would produce for the year (before the model year started) and then count down to 1. I am 99% sure that the higher number you have, the later in the MY run your car was produced. The lower the number, the closer to the beginning of the MY your car was produced (i.e. VIN ending in 000002 would be #2 off the line). Every other car I've seen has been that way.

 

[DocL]

It could also be that the car was an '01 model year built in 2000. Look at the cars coming out now as 2016MY with a 2015 build year.

 

[docjohn]

It could also be that the car was an '01 model year built in 2000. Look at the cars coming out now as 2016MY with a 2015 build year.

hey go back to the lotus forum..............:tongue:

 

[DocL]

hey go back to the lotus forum..............:tongue:

It's not as fun over there.

 

[docjohn]

...word to yo mama.....:biggrin:

 

[blue_myriddn]

It could also be that the car was an '01 model year built in 2000. Look at the cars coming out now as 2016MY with a 2015 build year.

Clearly that is the case with my car with the Dec 2000 build date and the 2001 VIN number. Still, it seems that the initial premise is not being well supported.

 

[jwmelvin]

Still, it seems that the initial premise is not being well supported.

I.e., it's flatly incorrect.

 

[nsxtasy]

I am 99% sure that the higher number you have, the later in the MY run your car was produced.

I am 100% sure that that statement is true.

Within each "range", VIN's are assigned sequentially as the cars are being built: 00001, then 00002, then 00003, etc. The first part of that range for the first model year (1991) was reserved for pre-production cars; the first production NSX for the U.S. market had a VIN ending in 000063, then 000064, then 000065, etc.

There are different ranges for different reasons. For example, the cars built for the U.S. market (12th digit is a zero) have one range, while those built for the Canadian market (12th digit is an eight) have a different range, and the last five digits can be duplicates between the U.S. market range and the Canadian market range. In the U.S. and Canadian markets, they start a range all over again with each model year, but it's possible that doesn't apply to other markets. Similarly, they used different ranges for different factories during the 2004 model year, when production was split between the Tochigi and Suzuka factories. And I believe at one point they split manual transmission NSXs vs automatic transmission cars into two different ranges. I'm sure Ben has documented this on these forums somewhere.

The bottom line is, within each range - IOW for a given market, model year (sometimes), factory (sometimes), transmission (sometimes), etc - they add one to the VIN as each car is produced. They never "work backwards" from a higher number to a lower number.

 

[Jim]

Ben, the person who created the original database with colors is currently working on this project, he is collecting pictures of VIN stickers and putting a new database together.

If you are willing to contribute to the project please take a picture of your VIN sticker and sent it to me at [email protected] so I can forward it to Ben. I personally sent him over 30 different pictures with vin stickers that I have either seen in person or found on the internet, I can assure you that this information will never be published publicly.

How is he collecting VIN pictures if not too many owners know about it? Or did I miss a thread?

 

[usafdarkhorse]

Yeah the original premise doesn't make any sense because Honda would have had to have known exactly how many cars they were intending to build for a particular year so they could start at that number and end at #1 . Unless a vehicle is a special run of a particular number (say 1500), you would have too much variability to make that work (and what purpose would it serve?).

- - - Updated - - -

How is he collecting VIN pictures if not too many owners know about it? Or did I miss a thread?

I would like to do the same with the Japanese cars over here. I'm finding out alot of new info about cars particular to the Japanese market that would be useful additions to the wiki.

 

[VR4Rob]

I am 100% sure that that statement is true.

Within each "range", VIN's are assigned sequentially as the cars are being built: 00001, then 00002, then 00003, etc. The first part of that range for the first model year (1991) was reserved for pre-production cars; the first production NSX for the U.S. market had a VIN ending in 000063, then 000064, then 000065, etc.

There are different ranges for different reasons. For example, the cars built for the U.S. market (12th digit is a zero) have one range, while those built for the Canadian market (12th digit is an eight) have a different range, and the last five digits can be duplicates between the U.S. market range and the Canadian market range. In the U.S. and Canadian markets, they start a range all over again with each model year, but it's possible that doesn't apply to other markets. Similarly, they used different ranges for different factories during the 2004 model year, when production was split between the Tochigi and Suzuka factories. And I believe at one point they split manual transmission NSXs vs automatic transmission cars into two different ranges. I'm sure Ben has documented this on these forums somewhere.

The bottom line is, within each range - IOW for a given market, model year (sometimes), factory (sometimes), transmission (sometimes), etc - they add one to the VIN as each car is produced. They never "work backwards" from a higher number to a lower number.

So if you're 100% sure of my 99% sure-ness... where does that leave us??

Great post. You put it much more eloquently than I did (and provided some great factual information).

 

[chudson1549]

hey go back to the lotus forum..............:tongue:

hahahahahaha

 

[Ben]

This pretty much sums it up.

I am 100% sure that that statement is true.

Within each "range", VIN's are assigned sequentially as the cars are being built: 00001, then 00002, then 00003, etc. The first part of that range for the first model year (1991) was reserved for pre-production cars; the first production NSX for the U.S. market had a VIN ending in 000063, then 000064, then 000065, etc.

There are different ranges for different reasons. For example, the cars built for the U.S. market (12th digit is a zero) have one range, while those built for the Canadian market (12th digit is an eight) have a different range, and the last five digits can be duplicates between the U.S. market range and the Canadian market range. In the U.S. and Canadian markets, they start a range all over again with each model year, but it's possible that doesn't apply to other markets. Similarly, they used different ranges for different factories during the 2004 model year, when production was split between the Tochigi and Suzuka factories. And I believe at one point they split manual transmission NSXs vs automatic transmission cars into two different ranges. I'm sure Ben has documented this on these forums somewhere.

The bottom line is, within each range - IOW for a given market, model year (sometimes), factory (sometimes), transmission (sometimes), etc - they add one to the VIN as each car is produced. They never "work backwards" from a higher number to a lower number.

 

[Ben]

As yet a further datapoint, when I was collecting the data in 2005, for the 2005 cars, as they were being produced and shipped over, as each batch arrived and appeared in American Honda's database, the sequential production numbers went up, not down.

Also, as I think someone else posted, a look at the production dates on the VIN stickers verifies that they increment up as well.