James-man

Are the later VIN 86.5 cars that have earlier build dates AUTOMATICS?

my 1611 is 5 sp and is 06 86

Just trying to make some sense of this.

Sorry for the double post.

James-man

Are the later VIN 86.5 cars thave earlier build dates AUTOMATICS?

RSKY BIZ

Back from computer melt-down... I swear it's from all the dang rain in Tex-A$$ lately..

OK -- RSKY BIZ's date is 01-86... VIN is 1639... (auto)
That means tonight and tomorrow night are her LAST nights to be 21!!!

We got some 'catching up to do'...

But wait... 86.5, built the BEGINNING of 86?

'Splain me, please!

928drvr86.5

Good call James. They must have set aside a block of vin's for auto and manual cars, that would explain some cars with higher numbers built before cars with lower numbers.

RSKY BIZ

James-Man,
Is yours an 86? A or M? Our #s don't jive...RSKY BIZ is 1639 in 01-86...
Your earlier # is dated after mine. . .
Thanks!

WHAT have I started here???

Kim

James-man

So when do model year clearance sales begin? Are car manufacturers starting to sell their 2008s yet. If not, it will be very soon. These silly companies are on some kinda fiscal year system.

Now with regards to our whacky vins and build dates I have concerns about a company that is supposed to have great engineering that can't keep numbers straight. The underratted HP problem may be another symptom of bad Porsche math?

I am just kidding. Happy B!

James-man

Yessir. Mine is definitely an 86.5. 5 speed. Old spoilers, S4 brakes, dual exhaust, huge intage plenum.

jpxc

My '87 had a build date of 9/12/86.

Vin 0075, so all 86.5 MY are 21 years old by now for sure I'd think.

Vilhuer

MY cut of point between S3.5 and S4 was in July-August '86. Usually very few cars are made in July as it is vacation month for production line workers and also line is many times repaired and modified between MY's.

unit

Im totally confused

RSKY BIZ

Erkka,
I was hoping you would jump in, with all your previous VIN research!
So far all the numbers and dates coincide (in that they both ascend in order) except for James-Man's and mine.
His is a manual; mine an auto.

Does that jive with what your #'s show?

Thanks!
Confused... and soggy...in the rain...in the plains...yeah...
Kim

69gaugeman

All auto companies have a summer shutdown, usually in the first two weeks of July. They then use that time to re tool for the next model year. anything after that time is the next model year.

Vilhuer

This is very strange if that is in fact correct. To my knowledge '86 MY US cars were made like any other MY. Meaning numbers were allocated in numeric order when bodies came to point in production line where they were stamped. It would have been confusing for product line workers to have to jump from number to number. It were easier for them to just have three VIN sequences, one for ROW cars, another for US and third for Japanise. Even though Japanise is sort of ROW number its so high above rest of the ROW's that three separate sequence cars were mixed in production line one after another. Numbers in each sequence sequentially one after another.

They might have made some production planning like if there were more ROW engines on stock for whatever reason in one day they did mostly ROW cars then and did more US models next day when S3 engine supply picked up again. Also they tried to make several cars with same paint color one after another as every color change meant some downtime on paint area. Only now specialised manufacturers like Valmet Automotive in Uusikaupunki who make most of the Boxster's and Cayman's have paint lines whick are easily capable to make color change for each body without causing delay.

If there were serious bottlenecks in parts production like manual gearboxes it would have simply meant factory did more automatics which all have next higher numeric VIN's without leaving any empty spaces for manual car to be made later. Since Porsche do not give anyone any promises that car will have certain VIN it doesn't matter what number they asing at production line to which car. All that matters is that customer gets car with correct color and options. If something like S3 engine parts were on short supply one time or another this would only show up in small number of US cars produced for this month. Not in jumps in VIN/build date combinations. This doesn't make sense as Porsche would not have gained anything by doing it.

In any case it would be great if Chuck's side had build month also listed. It would give more info if odd cases mentioned here are common or not. Total '86 US production was 2887 cars. Out of those VIN's 0061-0937 were S3 and 1001-3010 S3.5. This is approximately 262 cars each month. If they were done evenly over normal 11 months MY production cycle, cut of points would be something like this:

It is possible numbers are 100 or 200 VIN's in wrong months because christmas, easter etc vacations and maybe little early production stoppage due to S4 coming out for next MY. Knowledge of major upgrade coming in next MY could have slowed down sales in spring of '86 and make smaller production numbers towards end of MY. This would push late car dates into previous months. In any case above is abroximately how it should be.

1611's build month simply do not make sense based on what I know about 928 production. I'm not saying its wrong but there must be interesting explanation if its right.

As numbers show, S3.5 is really artificial name. Later S4 suspension cars outnumber earlier cars more than 2:1. So it should be S3.3 or maybe '85/10 or '85/11 based on month when suspension change happened. .5 is easy name to remember so S3.5 they will be forever probably.

Adam Geist

Hi - my '86.5 is #2899 (moss green metallic with A/T) with a build date of 07/86 according to the door jamb label. Maybe I should find out from Porsche the actual build date?

Adam

RSKY BIZ

You shared yours. . . I'll share mine -

RSKY BIZ:



(sorry 'bout the {lack of} quality)...

Erkka,
You really are a wealth of information in this regard. I'm sure there are 'stories'... lots of stories...if we tried to uncover some of this...
Thanks...perhaps others will jump in and elucidate further...
Kim