VIN, new cars and Carfax

[evandaalen]

OK guys, I promised to help you a little bit with the register!

First of all, I appreciated the thread about "VIN numbering". A decent overview like this is very helpful. I have done a similar thing for Ferraris, see my Red Headed website.

So, it seems like the VIN of Spyker look like this (not complete!):
1-3 digit: "XLA" (WMI Code for The Netherlands, small manufacturers)
4: "G" (early C8 Spyder), "A" (late C8 Spyder) or "B" (LaViolette)
5: "A" or "B"
6-7: "11"
8: "A" (early cars), "G" or "H" (later cars)
9: Check digit. See my site for a calculation.
10: Model Year ("5"=2005, "6"=2006, "7"=2007)
11: "Z" (probably means "Zeewolde")
12-14: "363" (second part of WMI, indicating "Spyker")
15-17: Three-digit serialnumber

I don't know what certain digits mean, but it might be related to things like engine specs or safety items (airbag or whatever).

Now, it should become a bit more interesting: I guess you know websites like "Carfax", where you can get history reports based on a 17-digit VIN of a car. So, if you enter a VIN at Carfax and the page returns something like "We found 5 records", then you at least know that the VIN is valid and that the car exists (and has some history in the US or Canada). Right??

We can go one step further: we know how a Spyker VIN should look like. Looking at the different combinations shown above, we can try every possible combination at Carfax to see if it returns with something like "We found 1 record", and then we know that this car exists!! Still follow me??

Trying all the combinations with a serialnumber lower than 225 (new cars should be somewhere near #200, right?), this means that we have to try something like 12,150 combinations. That's what I did recently, of course not by hand . The result is a list of all Spykers which have history records at Carfax. It total, I found 37 cars, and 16 of them are NEW to the register!!! Here is the full list!!!

C8 Spyder, model year 2005:
007 XL9GA11A35Z363007
010 XL9GA11A35Z363010 New
024 XL9GA11A35Z363024 New
031 XL9GA11A05Z363031 New
033 XL9GA11A45Z363033
035 XL9GA11A85Z363035
037 XL9GA11A15Z363037

C8 Spyder, model year 2006:
057 XL9GB11G36Z363057
070 XL9GB11A16Z363070 New
082 XL9GB11H16Z363082
085 XL9GB11H76Z363085
086 XL9GB11H96Z363086
088 XL9AA11G26Z363088
089 XL9AA11G46Z363089
090 XL9AA11G06Z363090 New
091 XL9GB11H26Z363091
094 XL9AA11G86Z363094 New
095 XL9AA11GX6Z363095 New
096 XL9AA11G16Z363096
102 XL9AA11G36Z363102 New
105 XL9AA11G96Z363105
106 XL9AA11G06Z363106
107 XL9AA11G26Z363107
113 XL9AA11G86Z363113 New
114 XL9AA11GX6Z363114 New
116 XL9AA11G36Z363116
117 XL9AA11G56Z363117 New
121 XL9AA11G76Z363121 New
134 XL9AA11G56Z363134
135 XL9AA11G76Z363135 New
139 XL9AA11G46Z363139
141 XL9AA11G26Z363141 New
152 XL9AA11G76Z363152
153 XL9AA11G96Z363153 New

C8 Laviolette:
123 XL9BA11G56Z363123 New
128 XL9BA11G27Z363128
166 XL9BA11GX7Z363166

So, we now know that these cars exist and that they have some history in the US and/or Canada (Carfax only has records from these countries). We can go even one step further, but I can't do that myself: if you buy the "Unlimited Reports" at Carfax for $30, you can get all the Carfax reports of these cars. The information is often very limited, but might include things like the date and state where it was first registered, the dates of sales, the colour (often not present) or even something about salvage titles.

I would do that if I could, but Carfax only accept US/Canada customers, so we need someone from the US/Canada to do that ...

Any thoughts????

[bucciali]

Holy Macaroni!

That's some nice research, Edvar. I'm sure that we will get the Unlimited Reports soon. Do you need to be a resident of the US?

Regarding Canada: I read on some forum a while ago that Spykers have not been approved for Canada. Does anybody know more? At least I have not seen any Spyker listed for sale in Canada.

[evandaalen]

Originally Posted by bucciali

Holy Macaroni!

That's some nice research, Edvar. I'm sure that we will get the Unlimited Reports soon. Do you need to be a resident of the US?

Regarding Canada: I read on some forum a while ago that Spykers have not been approved for Canada. Does anybody know more? At least I have not seen any Spyker listed for sale in Canada.

Yes, to use Carfax, you have to be a resident of the US. I've tried it in the past, but I didn't succeed ...

[AX lover]

I guess you don't know the colorcombinations of these cars

But all these cars are registered in the USA or Canada?

[evandaalen]

Originally Posted by AX lover

I guess you don't know the colorcombinations of these cars

Not yet! Sometimes, Carfax can give information about the colour of the exterior, just using the main names (like yellow, red, black, etc.). I once did this trick for the Ferrari Enzos, and only in 10% (or so) of the reports they listed the colour ...

Originally Posted by AX lover

But all these cars are registered in the USA or Canada?

Yes, all these cars somehow have (or had!) some history in the US or Canada. It is often related to a car being registered or serviced.

[AX lover]

Weird that #007 is also registered because that is Victor's car.

[evandaalen]

Originally Posted by AX lover

Weird that #007 is also registered because that is Victor's car.

Maybe 007 was used for a car show in the US or Canada? Or perhaps it was used for type approval (don't know the correct word, but each car type should be approved by law before it can be sold/used). Hopefully the full Carfax report can show us a bit more ...

[SpykerOwner]

Originally Posted by AX lover

.. because that is Victor's car.

.. was .. is the correct word

[AX lover]

@SpykerOwner, true! Shame on me :P

@evandaalen, can you find full Carfax reports?

[AX lover]

I added all the VIN's you've found to The (incomplete) list which is getting more and more complete

But I find it strange that some low VIN's are from MY2005! These cars are build in 2003. I know that manufacturers often start the MY early (MY2009 cars in 2008) but this is real early!