325I VIN Numbers

[egiro]

Hello to all!

I'm considering a 2003 325I, and I notice that some of them are manufactured in South Africa, and some in Germany. I'm looking at new ones with window stickers and also dealer demos without. The ones with window stickers tell you the country of manufacture, but the ones without stickers do not.

Do any of you know if there's a code embedded in the VIN that tells you what country the car is made in?

For example, I own a VW Jetta, and the VW VIN's are coded as to country of manufacture, 3VWXXX... meaning it comes from Mexico, and VWWXXX... means it comes from Germany.

I figure BMW does someting similar. Do any of you out there know??

Not to be prejudicial to South Africa, but if I buy a Bimmer, I want it to come from the "mother country"!!!

Thanks in advance for your reply!

Ernest

[5thelement]

It ain't all gonna come from the mother country. I looked at a few of them yesterday and the transmission is from France.

[MioCLK]

All manufacturer tells you where the car was manufactured with the first letter of the VIN #
I am not sure about the letter for South Africa, but Germany = W
2nd letter is the manufacturer
3rd-8th is the body style, engine, etc.
9th is check digit.
10th digit, is the model year of vehicle, not the year the car was manufactured
11th is the final assembly plant.
12-17th: the sequence that the vehicle rolled out of the factory

[egiro]

Great, MioCLK, thanks for the info!