Car VIN help!

[frank j. bauer]

At 02:57 PM 7/18/01 -0400, Raj Diocee wrote:
>Now here's my prob, the winshield and doorjam have the following VIN: 
>WAUFB0818EA074573(this is the one currently on my canadian registration, and 
>the one that AoA said was invalid). The firewall has this VIN: 
>WAUZZZ81ZEA074573. Are our cars supposed to have 2 VIN's? What's going on? 
>If I try the WAUZZZ... VIN on carfax, I get an invalid entry message, but 
>the WAUF... VIN works ok? I'm really confused.

the "...ZZZ..." number is the euro (vin) number.
the differing digits are used in north america only (as far as i know) and
are used to indicate various codes relating to emission controls and safety
equipment.
AOA will stubbornly refuse to recognize any vehicle that wasn't imported by
AOA, regardless of its heritage.
if you went into a dealership and asked to buy an oil filter for than vin,
they would probably tell you they don't sell parts for those cars.
apparently carfax isn't so brain dead.

frank