ZZZ and VINs

[Greg Amy <grega@pobox.com>]

>On My 88 90q (US) and other Audis that I have inspected, "ZZZ" appears in 
>the VIN on the firewall. If you look at the windshield or door pillar, it 
>reads "WAUCHO"

I'd like to offer a little insight on VINs and decoding. I have a unique
perspective on these, because when the new VIN system went into effect
nationwide here in the good ole USA (1980) I was a Service and Parts Manager
at a VW/Porsche/Audi dealership. In addition, this happened in a city
(Wichita Falls, TX) that had a huge Air Force Base (Sheppard AFB) that had a
LOT of Euro/NATO training students from all over the world, and they all
brought their European toys with them. Plus, the early 80's were the height
of the gray-market importing years.

I'm not going to give a dissertation on decoding VINs; there's plenty of
other places to do that. However, a little background is in order.

The 17-digit VIN in the US started in 1980. Note that this was a requirement
ONLY in the USA. Also remember, these were the days when Europe was booming,
everyone over there was buying cars, and the US market meant very little to
the European manufacturers. Thus, they did as little as necessary to comply
with US DOT and EPA laws. Remember when Euro-spec cars didn't have smog
controls, catalytic converters, door intrusion bars, xx-mph bumpers, and
US-spec European import cars were slower, heavier, and had less horsepower?
That gives you a good idea of what they thought of the American market.

Effective 1980 all cars sold in the US were required to have that 17-digit
VIN. Well, Europe didn't give a flip about the new VIN; they wanted to keep
the old sequential serial numbers. Remember your pre-1980 cars that just a
sequential number? I still reach for the old workshop manual when I work on
a pre-1980 car to find out what year it is!

In order to comply with the US VIN spec, many European manufacturers, during
manufacturing, stamped the car with the sequential numbers, and used the
letter "Z" for all other positions they didn't want or need to use. Then,
when the car was imported to the US shores, it received a fully-coded VIN on
the A-pillar, courtesy of the US importer. These full-coded VINs were then
recorded with the Feds and on your local title. Therefore, your early 80's
Euro imports have "Z" all over the car, except on the A-pillar.

Note the positions that they chose to use: the country of manufacture ("W"
for West Germany), the manufacturer ("AU" for Audi), the model (in the case
of my 200, "44"), the year (my 1991 is "M"), and the sequential number. Note
what they "Z"d out: the type of restraints, the Federal "check digit" and a
couple other spaces which escape my brain tonight.

On the other hand, I had heard that the United States Customs "required"
that any car not imported into the US have those digits "Z"d out; pick your
favorite idea. Somehow, though, I can't see the US "requiring" anything from
manufacturers over there...

Now, given this treatise, you'd think that every European car would have
those "Z" VINs somewhere on the car. Not so. Virtually every major European
manufacturer that was building cars INTENDED for the US market (a very
important point) applied for, and received, their block of US-approved VINs
for the production line. That means that as the cars were going down the
line, the production crew knew which were being built with special equipment
and destined for the US (remember, we had all those extra emission and
safety requirements, therefore our cars were "special"), therefore they
already had their US-spec VIN from the beginning of the production line. All
other cars, those INTENDED for OTHER THAN the US, got "Z"d out VINs in order
to make it easier to keep them straight and not have to maintain a separate
VIN system.

So where do we stand on these Ur-q with Z VINs? These Z VIN cars are likely
ones that went down the production line NOT INTENDED for sale in the US by
the manufacturer. These could be gray-market cars, independently-imported
cars, cars brought over by European citizens and later made to meet the US
specs, or something to that effect. It is unlikely that these cars were
imported by Audi of America for sale in the US.

This does not mean these cars are illegal! In fact, if they are here, and
especially if they have legal US-spec VINs on the A-pillar and valid titles,
they are legal cars unless proven otherwise. It just means that their method
of importation was a bit unusual.

As an aside, I got to see a lot of these cars as they were brought over
temporarily by European jet jocks; I got to see a lot of neat hardware that
I would have otherwise missed. I distinctly remember a pair of the
short-wheelbase Audi Quattros owned by German pilots. Awesome cars, and
they'd always screw with the dealer's son, who owned a 1979 US-spec Porsche
930 Turbo. They'd wipe him up every time, then go looking down the boulevard
for the big-block American car crowd...<grin> (Unfortunately, as you an
imagine, getting parts for these cars was quite a feat. When we called for
VW/Audi parts, we had to supply VINs, signed affidavits from the owners as
to where the parts were being installed, and signed waivers from the owners
and their Embassy!)

Hope this helps,

Greg Amy
Milford, CT