Experian autochecks 'invalid VIN'

[craigbau]

I recently purchased a widebody 500SEC with a "serviced by Alan Day Central London NW6' sticker on it. Also a contact in AMG can tell from the vin number that it went from AMG to the UK in 1982. I have no vehicle history but knowing how few of these there were in Australia and being a RHD car I thought it was likely to be UK anyway. Having a bit of a read on here (this is my second post) I picked up that you can do an Experian check for ownership and just tried to do that online, but it tells me it is an invalid Vin (WDB12604422001939) and says it must have 17 characters, post 1980 and no letters I O or Q. So by my counting I reckon it is valid according to their rules, but maybe it just does that if it is not on their records? I am guessing it hasn't been in the UK for a very long time. Anyone with any experience on this, or any other suggestions how to find out ownership details? Unfortunately i don't have any books or any record of the first rego number.

Any help greatly appreciated.

 

[Troon]

Are you certain the 2 at character 11 is correct?

 

[markjay]

There would usually be a letter there, not a digit.

 

[flango]

VIN is correct for a USA car and returns this on the database

Also the Experian database is well known for it's inaccuracy as the other databases they hold so a check via this method is not worth the paper its written on or the screen its displayed on

 

[craigbau]

Thanks guys - yes definitely a 2. this is where i sound like a real benz tragic but my other 500SEC also has a 2 there but both my 560SELs have an A - I am guessing it is a gen 1/2 thing or a certain year. And thanks for the print out Flanaia - I got the same thing and it stumped me how it is the car has 3 sets of wheels listed.... and none of them were on the car in 1982 when it left AMG! Obviously a glitch in the codes.

Are there any other methods of searching on past ownership? When i was working in the UK you guys seem to have history of rego etc much better sorted than here. People can spot a car that they owned in the 50's for example and know that is the car. And since our rego authorities have seen dollar values to plates they are grabbing them whenever they can and then auctioning them off again.

 

[Dieselman]

Thanks guys - yes definitely a 2. this is where i sound like a real benz tragic but my other 500SEC also has a 2 there but both my 560SELs have an A - I am guessing it is a gen 1/2 thing or a certain year. y are grabbing them whenever they can and then auctioning them off again.

It denotes the factory the car is built in.

 

[flango]

it stumped me how it is the car has 3 sets of wheels listed.... and none of them were on the car in 1982 when it left AMG! Obviously a glitch in the codes.

I think I can answer you that one as it just happened to me, the details logged against my car are also incorrect when I contacted Brabus they explained that the car as supplied to them would have the correct data card, then they would supply the car in the customer spec to the dealer in the UK and it was up to the dealer in the UK to update the data card but few ever did, so maybe this is the case with AMG in the early days too before they became part of MB.

 

[craigbau]

That's fantastic flanaia - that completely makes sense and I had never heard that. If they know it is going to a known modifier, chances are it will end up with another set of wheels. But as you can imagine the factory want to do what they can to get their records correct, but what are the chances of anybody else having that same enthusiasm!