Gti Vin Decoding

[griffo 15 1 Cars]

Greetings, I am a new forum member from Australia and owner of a 1989 205 GTi.

I have been doing some research on the Australian delivered cars and in using the PSA ServiceBox application to ascertain some information on my and other cars, discovered that there was more information available that was not displayed.

Subsequently I have created a web page which allows a GTi (and some other models: CTi, Rallye, Gentry) owners to view this information based on the cars VIN number. Unfortunately ServiceBox only recognises Phase 1.5 and 2 models.

http://www.205gti.info/vin/vin.htm

I have been able to 'decode' most of the information, but there is some information I have not been able to determine accurately, specifically (Destination) Country Code for some European countries and also some of the more obscure trim options.

Hopefully the information displayed will be of some value and you can help contribute to this 'crowd sourced' information.

If you believe any of the providing information is incorrect, then by all means send corrections to the provided email address or to this thread if you prefer.

The VIN and underlying data is not used for any other purpose other than improving the quality information that I can provide the owner.

Regs

griffo

[griffo 15 1 Cars]

Hi, thanks to the two members who submitted VINs.

 

Interestingly both vehicles were built in batches that included a number of the 'UK 1FM' special edition models.

 

Cheers

[jackherer 543]

Thanks for your work on this Neil, it looks like a useful tool

 

We have some 1FM owners on here so hopefully they'll be able to add some more data.

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

.........

Edited August 24, 2015 by Slo

[welshpug 1,627]

Neil, might be a problem with the first digit or letter of the vin being said to designate year.

 

VF3741C6607519059 is one such VIN that a BRF member was trying to find a build date for, not recognised by servicebox as its a phase1, however the year digit according to your page gives it as 1988, have found car was registered 15/1/1987...

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

I put my vin into that box at the bottom and its come up with the date 05/07/1989 and BE3 box whereas its actually 14/08/1987 and BE1 box

[griffo 15 1 Cars]

Thanks for your work on this Neil, it looks like a useful tool

 

We have some 1FM owners on here so hopefully they'll be able to add some more data.

 

Thanks Jack, I now have data on 17 of the 25 1FM's fwiw.

[griffo 15 1 Cars]

Neil, might be a problem with the first digit or letter of the vin being said to designate year.

 

VF3741C6607519059 is one such VIN that a BRF member was trying to find a build date for, not recognised by servicebox as its a phase1, however the year digit according to your page gives it as 1988, have found car was registered 15/1/1987...

 

Hi Mei, thanks for the feedback.

 

From looking at the two French references on this matter (as noted on the bottom of the VIN page), I might have expected that the this car would have had an 'H' instead of an '0'. The VIS also corresponds with the 1987 'vintage'.

 

My statement of '0' denoting 1988 was based on the Phase 1 Australian vehicles which were all built from late Jun 87 and had a VIN of VF3741C860xxxxxxx. I would have thought PSA might have adopted 'J' to signify 1988 Phase 1 vehicles until the Phase 1.5 20CDxx vehicles came into production, but they obviously didn't.

 

So the $64 question, what other Phase 1 vehicles had a '0' as the first character of the VIS? Is there some underlying logic

[griffo 15 1 Cars]

I put my vin into that box at the bottom and its come up with the date 05/07/1989 and BE3 box whereas its actually 14/08/1987 and BE1 box

Hi Andy, thinks I'll need to get a fresh coffee for this one ​

 

If you are referring to the Graphite Grey 1.6 GTi (VIN ..... 7711) , then I am indeed puzzled.

 

The VIS of this car puts it in 07/89 based on other vehicles I have data for, and a build date of 08/87 would be just on the cusp of Phase 1/1.5 and I would suspect a VIN below VF320CB620108xxxx... I only have data back to 10/87.

 

What is your build date based on?

[lagonda 41]

Hey, it's French....don't expect logic in anything conceived by French people. I should know, I've lived here 5 years.

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

Its a CTI and yeah its the 7711 one, take it the sites datalogging every number tried not that thats a problem

[welshpug 1,627]

CTi's are slightly different kettle of fish, afaik thy were not fully built by peugeot but also Pininfarina had a hand in the assembly.

[jackherer 543]

It's possible that Pininfarina were allocated a sequence of VINs that were slowly used by them over a period of time. It's years since I looked at a CTI but I'm sure I remember a different style or location of VIN plate on them.

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

Ive read that the bodies were built then shipped to spain for the galvanised dip and then painting.

 

Who knows, anyway i've got a phase 1 e reg and a phase 1.5 f reg if you want a bit of comparing to do

[griffo 15 1 Cars]

Ive read that the bodies were built then shipped to spain for the galvanised dip and then painting.

 

Who knows, anyway i've got a phase 1 e reg and a phase 1.5 f reg if you want a bit of comparing to do

 

OK, according to '205 GTi - Enthusiasts Companion', it appears that the bodies where built up/painted/trimmed in the Pinninfarini Grugliasco factory in Italy and then shipped to Mulhouse, and I believe later Sochaux, for final assembly with all the mechanicals.

 

I'm not sure where Spain comes into it other than in late '91, 205 (GTi) production was moved to the Madrid-Villaverde factory in Spain although I believe that perhaps the CTi's went to Sochaux... not enough data to make that call.

 

As far as the VINs are concerned, from what I can see, the CTi VIS numbers are pretty much in line with the regular 205 numbers which suggests the VINs were allocated on the French production lines. The VINs are stamped on the chassis post painting and Pininfarina added their own serial numbers on welded tags.

 

http://www.dethomaso.fr/article-identifier-sa-205gti-114027761.html

 

I've only personally looked at one CTi, a Phase 1.5 Japanese import, and the Peugeot Automobiles build plate and VIN stamping were in the usual location. Phase 1 cars may be different.

 

Happy to get as much VIN love as possible

 

Regs

 

griffo

Edited August 26, 2015 by griffo

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

All tags and numbers are in exactly the same place on both of mine, thats a great wealth of information on that page Neil Cheers

[griffo 15 1 Cars]

 

Hi Mei, thanks for the feedback.

 

From looking at the two French references on this matter (as noted on the bottom of the VIN page), I might have expected that the this car would have had an 'H' instead of an '0'. The VIS also corresponds with the 1987 'vintage'.

 

My statement of '0' denoting 1988 was based on the Phase 1 Australian vehicles which were all built from late Jun 87 and had a VIN of VF3741C860xxxxxxx. I would have thought PSA might have adopted 'J' to signify 1988 Phase 1 vehicles until the Phase 1.5 20CDxx vehicles came into production, but they obviously didn't.

 

So the $64 question, what other Phase 1 vehicles had a '0' as the first character of the VIS? Is there some underlying logic

 

OK, I found another reference ( Guide d'identification Peugeot 205 ) and this suggests contrary to Guillaume Maguet's excellent 'La Guide de la 205' that 'H' was not used for the 1987 vintage.

 

From the text in the book, it makes me think this letter code in VIS was purely used for the cars destined for the French market. So do the early Phase 1 UK cars have a letter at the start of the VIS (serial number) ?

 

 

Bad Google Translate

 

"Major common point between the different Peugeot models that preceded the 205: the letter representing the model year that we discover printed after the model code (VDS). Even if it is present on all cars, it is a particular constant in the French market. Here's why: in France, the models came out from July are considered to belong to the following year. Thus, if some details vary during the year, the most important changes appear in turn, at the beginning of the new model year. It is the same for all price quotations given by the French magazine "Argus" which then reference in the field. It is a concept difficult to integrate, for example in Italy, where very often the new car that you want to acquire is available at the dealership at year end, and do not want to register it until the following year .

Since 1988, particularly to the French market, appear adhesive with model year: eg "AM88" for 1988. It is generally stuck to the front side driver, just below the windshield."

 

Cheers

[steve@cornwall 100]

I believe the cti also has a build number tack welded to the boot floor.

[jackherer 543]

Yes, I'm pretty sure that's what I was remembering before.

 

If you follow the link in Neil's post above there is a photo of one.

 

[welshpug 1,627]

I wonder if thats an rp number rather than a specific build number.

 

if so that would be December 9th 1988

[jackherer 543]

Could be, any CTI owners care to share their VIN and "boot" number to see if there is a correlation?

 

Here is the relevant paragraph from that site translated by google:

Pininfarina D-number

Convertibles are produced by the modification of the frame in the Pninfarina workshops. Thus, they possess a serial number in complement of the frame number. No regulatory, appearance, they are specific to 205cabriolets.

It is located in the trunk, under the riveted sound absorbing padding.

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

Pretty sure there wont be as surely the cabriolets got their hair dressed by paninfarina before the cars got their vin tags, says right there on your quote no regulatory.

 

Going by that they could have lost count at any time and started on the next ten or hundred to keep a rough track.

 

Happy to provide both of mine.

[griffo 15 1 Cars]

Hi, I'm pretty sure there is no correlation between the Pinifarina (tag) number and the PSA VIN.

 

The PSA VIN would be allocated on the (pre) production line as per other 205s I would think. I would assume the Cabrio bodies were provided to PSA and just slotted into the 'install the mechanics' part of the production line as would the regular 205s from the paint shop.

 

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

Wow great picture

[griffo 15 1 Cars]

OK, here is one I prepared earlier... from 'Peugeot 205 GTi - The Enthusiast's Companion'.

The previous photo was from 'Le Guide de La 205' by Guillaume Maguet.