Hi,

Am looking a buying a used 8 in Ireland and am trying to determine what flash is installed and if it's been part of any recall. It was registered in Jan 2006 but was used as a demo before that so it may or may not be the latest model.

The dealer has looked around the door jambs for the build date but says he can't find it. Instead he's given me the VIN. I found from this site that the number in position 10 is the build year but in this VIN thats a 0(zero) so I'm no wiser.

Can anyone help me with any other way to find out the build date?
Also, if anyone has anything in particular that I should look for when viewing the car, I'd appreciate the advice.

Thanks,

Dave

 

This web page should help you.
http://www.analogx.com/contents/vinview.htm

 

thanks for that but had tried that link already and I'm afraid it can't work out the year either, comes up as unknown.

 

I'm pretty sure a Carfax report will supply you with the build date.

 

Carfix only applies to US as far as I know? The car is European (Ireland).
thanks again

 

Call mazda and find out.

 

Check the information card on the inside of the Door Jamb. In the US it is in the driver's side door B pillar. That might have the month and year.

 

Next time, try reading the WHOLE original post :P

 

Are you SURE you read the VIN right?

Don't go from the papers, look at the plate in the windshield. If the tenth-position # is a zero it would be the first I've ever heard of.

JM1FE1730_........

J is for Japan,
M1 is Mazda,
FE is the RX-8,
1730 is the model #,
the next position IS your year.

S

 

I agree. Having a zero in there for the year dosn't make sense but I have seen it before, specifically on the list of cars affected by recalls in the UK.

http://www.theaa.com/allaboutcars/re...azda&makeId=C6

I think having the model year in the VIN number is only a requirement in teh US and isn't always required in Europe.

I'll contact Mazda and see if they can help.

Thanks all.

 

Exactly the standard is ISO 3779 which has a North american variant with more detail specified out.

http://www.answers.com/topic/vehicle...ication-number

The digit ZERO has never been a valid model year encoding in North America but outside the US there is not even a field defined for the model year. Some manufacturers use the tenth digit of the VIN for model year consistently world wide, but others do not.