[SoYank]

There is a thread that states the seventh character from the end of the VIN indicates the build factory. What information does the VIN actually depict? Can you determine the options on the vehicle from the VIN? Does "WBA" indicate the car is an E90?

[E90Fleet]

VIN doesnt show options
But dealers can look up what options were put into a specific VIN

The WBA means its a BMW made car( USA manufactures used to have another code, but i believe they are now all WBA )

Digits 4to7 are a model code
Digit 8 is a airbag code
Digit 9 is a check digit

The rest are factory and Serial numbers

[shadowcoder]

Originally Posted by SoYank

There is a thread that states the seventh character from the end of the VIN indicates the build factory. What information does the VIN actually depict? Can you determine the options on the vehicle from the VIN?

I don't think you can determine the options from the VIN as far as I know.

Originally Posted by SoYank

Does "WBA" indicate the car is an E90?

No. The fact that is its an E90 I think is indicated in the encoding of the
model specific digits which are digits 4-7.

It's like this. Assume you have VIN WBAVB12345KS12345 (the 12345s
are random)

1: the region and W is Europe (for US it's 1, 4 or 5 but I think BMW stopped using them in 1999).
2: the manufacturer and B is for BMW. For BMW US a U is used.
3: vehicle type or manufacturing division and A is I think for passenger vehicle of BMW AG, Munich.
4-7: usually encoding of model specific things like body style, engine type etc.
8: encoding of the safety restraint system such as type of belts and airbags.
9: check digit where with some insane formula validity of the vin is verified.
10: model year.
11: assembly plant (A, F, and K are for Munich I think).
12-17: serial number of car as it rolled off production with the last 4 digits.
being always numeric.

sc.-

[SoYank]

Thanks. That was helpful. Do you happen to know the breakdown of digits 4-7? How about the variants of digit 8 and 9. All the rest are pretty much self-explanatory.

[shadowcoder]

Originally Posted by SoYank

Thanks. That was helpful. Do you happen to know the breakdown of digits 4-7?

Originally Posted by SoYank

How about the variants of digit 8 and 9. All the rest are pretty much self-explanatory.

I think that:
4 is the line
5 is the series
6 is the body type
7 is the vehicle type
I have the breakdown for those numbers for my 1993 E36 from BMW
Greece but obviously that doesn't stay the same over the years and
models and lines change. I don't have the newest breakdown.

I believe the 5 in position 8 (which is what I have in my E90) is manual
seat belts with advanced passenger and driver airbag and side airbags.
I think.

Now the 9 is the check digit that validates the VIN:

Numbers have their actual value.

Letters have the following:
A: 1 B: 2 C: 3 D: 4 E: 5 F: 6 G: 7 H: 8 J: 1
K: 2 L: 3 M: 4 N: 5 P: 7 R: 9 S: 2 T: 3 U: 4
U: 4 V: 5 W: 6 X: 7 Y: 8 Z: 9

Each position in the VIN has the following weight:

Position Weight
1 and 11: 8
2 and 12: 7
3 and 13: 6
4 and 14: 5
6 and 16: 3
7 and 17: 2
8: 10
10: 9

You take the value of everything in the VIN and you multiply it by the
weight of its position. So for example a VIN starting with a W:

W has a value of 6 and is in position 1 hence its weight is 8: 6 * 8 = 48

You do that for everything and you add the numbers up. You divide the
sum with 11 and the remainder is the check digit of the VIN. If your
remainder is 0 you put an X as the check.

sc.-

[SoYank]

Hmmm. Let me digest that for awhile. Thanks.

[imola cab]

look at this thread,

has a breakdown of the VIN

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=828

[SoYank]

The chart in the cited thread seems to be out of date. My VIN has a 5 as the 8th digit.

[ska///235i]

I thought this was a "de vinci code" thread