Chrysler re-using VINs = ???

[Haficon]

Ran into a bit of a snag today working with my newly acquired 1986 Jeep Comanche. Seems as per the dealership, Chrysler has started re-using older VINs. My vin, when ran by the dealer comes back to a 2016 Dodge Journey van, and a 1986 Jeep Comanche. Hopefully this does not hold up me getting a tag as I will be registering in Alabama but it is currently titled in Ma.

Anyone else run across this?

[gogmorgo]

That's... interesting. I would expect it to be more of a coincidence than anything else, given there are so many combinations out there. But if they've started building the Journeys at the same plant where they built the MJ's, you would by default have the same first three and 11th digits. Then they ran out of letters and numbers for the year so they're reusing the same letters. That's 5/17 digits. The last six digits are the production line order (more or less) and are predetermined sequentially, so there's always overlap there. That's 11/17 digits. Digits four through eight are the vehicle descriptors, so trim level, body style, trim level, etc. Those five digits get changed so often it doesn't surprise me one combination would get reused by mistake, thirty years down the line after the company changed hands what, four, five times? And with all 16/17 other digits being the same, the 9th digit would also be the same, since it's a check digit for the rest. So a coincidence.

Except the Journey is built in Mexico, and the MJ's never were, so the manufacturer codes should be completely different. That's weird.

 

I wonder how many other '86 MJ's are also brand new Journeys?

[Pete M]

I can see a dealership only putting a small piece of the VIN into a computer and coming back with a different vehicle, but all 17 digits?  holy crap that's a long shot! :eek:  go buy a lotto ticket!!

[Minuit]

There's no way. Here's a 2016 Journey vin from a dealer's website: 3C4PDCABXGT110507. I could see just the serial number if yours is an early '86, but just about nothing else matches.

 

All MJ VINs start with 1(made in the US) and J (Jeep) for instance. That doesn't look like any MJ VIN I've ever seen. The Journey is made in Mexico (leading digit of 3) so that rules it out completely.

[gogmorgo]

^That's what I was thinking. Just couldn't be bothered to look up Mexico's code.

My Lada's vin starts with X because it was built in Russia. (Just a cool random fact)

[mysteed]

What he did is he probably ran the last 8 digits of your VIN, not the entire thing.