This quote is found in the November issue of 'Chevy High Performance' page 12 by Kevin McClelland, "After '90, all GM cars identified the options within the VIN"

He goes on to tell how if you have the VIN on a '90 or later GM vehicle, the dealer can see all of the options (rpo's?) it had. (I asked for a screen print when the parts guy pulled up mine when ordering seat belts for my vert.)

If GM has this kind of info, they should be able to tell us how many of a combo of rpos were produced for '90 and later cars.

I would love to know how many 5-speed, heritage vert z's were produced. I think they have the data, but they don't want to do the query.

 

They could probably do it, but why would they want to?

 

Well the first statement is wrong, the VIN doesnt say anything about the color of the car, for example.

 

It's not encoded within the VIN, it's indexed by the VIN.

 

But madmax, it's in a magazine, IT MUST BE TRUE!!! And it's probably somewhere on the Internet too!!!!!

Don't tell me it isn't so, you'll destroy my entire lifelong knowledge base! Surely everything in magazines is TRUE?!?!?!?!? Aaaaaahhhhhh, my head is about to explode.........................

not....





Seriously, anybody can write anything and get it published. Don't expect a writer for a magazine that isn't affiliated in any way with GM, to know more about GM's factory production record archives than GM does.

Yes, they probably have the data; or at least, did at one time, unless they've thrown it away (quite possible.... it's mighty useless TO THEM now). Yes, they probably COULD do the query, IF the data still exists. No, the data IS NOT encoded into the VIN; the VIN format is mandated by law, and contains the legally required information and that's it because that's what the law says is supposed to be in it. No, they don't want to, because it would be a full-time job for an entire DEPARTMENT of people who would mostly end up just getting calls from people who want to put them through no telling how much querying, but don't want to pay for the service and will just complain about how much it costs. No it would not make them a dime, and it would not sell one single car that they wouldn't sell otherwise (their primary business purpose). Not one. So they choose not to do it.

One day, when YOU own GM and can make those decisions, please help us all out and put that department into effect.

 

Guys, Guys,,,, the reason I wanted to discuss this is because a lot of times when new users post 'How rare is my car?', the usual answer is 'GM didn't keep up with that info'. Well, according to this article and with the dealer supplied printout sitting right next to me, they do have this info for '90 and newer cars. I think the proper answer might be 'GM hasn't released that info'.


And btw, the printout of my rpo's does list rpo 81U. According to camarosource.ca, 81U is 'Primary Color, Exterior, Bright Red'. So, with the vin the rpo's can be obtained (from the dealer) and the exterior color can be obtained from the list of rpo's.

The printout was made 8 months ago.

 

I think it would be more accurate to say "GM has no interest in or incentive to expend resources making that material available".

It's not a matter of just doing a printout of different option combinations.

 

That is a good start.

 

That's just ridiculous. Think about it - How could 17 numbers/letters, many of which are already taken and/or common across product lines, contain a build sheet's worth of RPO codes. Wrong answer.

Mike M

 

I wasnt referring to RPO's, or that the dealer could get those from the VIN. Thats not what the quote you listed said, it says the option information is in the VIN and the fact is, its not. 100 years from now when GM's documents for 1990 have all been destroyed, you would not be able to read and decode the VIN to tell you anything other than whats on it and that leaves a whole bunch of things out.

BTW, my TA's list of RPO's was long gone before I got the car. The FIRST thing I did was go to the dealer to see what they could tell me. I knew then, in 1993, that they could use the VIN to lookup RPO's but they didnt have mine in their computer. Then I called Pontiac and they sent me a copy of the order sheet for the car with all the RPO's listed. I think if anyone is willing to give up after reading an internet post is deserving of getting nothing, as are those who believe some of the nonsense in print as if it were gospel or even correct. Key is to research your options and try ANYTHING.

 

I see your point that the statement is misleading. I guess I knew what the guy was trying to say. He should have said something like 'options associated with the vin' instead of 'identified ... within the VIN'.

I guess with my background in database development I see the potental of having access to this info. I agree with previous statements about the likelyhood of someone gaining access to it. If the chevy equivalent of PHS had access to this info, it would add a lot of value to the service.

Sorry this confused some of you.

Chris

 

The Vin number is the Reference that can produce the RPO's for that car. However: GM deleted all computer info for cars older then ten years, Yes, at one time you could get that info from the Dealer, but NOT now.

 

DJP87Z28,

If that were true, how do you explain them pulling up my rpo's this past January (8 months ago). I've got a printout to prove my side of the discussion. What do you have?

Why are you guys dumping on this tid bit of info?

 

Okay, I understand now - As a starting reference point, it does make sense.

Mike M

 

Because in MOST cases it CANNOT be done. So you were lucky getting the info. GM does delete this info.

 

I work for a GM dealer, and the RPO's for all VIN's from 90 and up are available from the same computer I look parts up on.

 

I had a GM parts guy do this for my 1990 GTA.. I was picking up some rear hatch struts at a Pontiac dealer about 8 years ago and he printed out my RPO list from the VIN... I didn't ask him to.. He just did it just to show me he could do it.

 

This isn't really new information... And it doesn't change the fact that GM didn't keep track of option combinations. In some cases you can get your RPO's from the parts counter at a GM dealership, but they still can't tell you how many 1987 Iroc's had a L98, ttops, red paint, and black interior. Worse yet is that most people who are looking for these combinations are hoping to find out that their car they just bought from the guy down the street is one of a kind and worth a gazillion dollars. It's really pretty lame all the way around since there is no such thing as a rare thirdgen.

 

I'm going to bypass all the flaming and go back to the origional question. The answer is yes. After the 1990 model year, every RPO code that was assigned to a VIN number was recorded and cataloged.

This is to say that if you call the dealer looking for a rear leaf spring for your 95 Chevy 2500 pickup truck, they will ask you for the last 9 digits of the VIN. With that info, they will know what RPO that vehicle's spring is so they can order the right part. They have the ability to tell you what RPO codes are assigned to a VIN, once you give them the VIN.

This is not to say that they can somehow search this database and tell you how many G92's with leather seats and the BOSE sound system were produced in 92. They just can't do a search like that, it doesn't work that way.

One might argue that you could just run every production sequence in order to obtain an accurate number of every PRO combination possible. But this is also not possible because contained in the last 9 digits of the VIN is the check digit, and without knowing the first 8 digits, you can't obtain the check digit. And without the check digit, you can't get the RPO codes to determine the first 8 digits to then determine the check digit. Trippy, huh? It's basically an issue of the chicken or the egg, you can't get one without the other and vise versa.

Even if you did have every VIN for a given model year, AND a friend at the GM parts counter that was willing to run EVERY VIN combination (which would take days, if not months), you would still need to enter all that info in a spreadsheet that was capable of giving the information that you wanted. Just having the RPO sheets for every car will do you little good if you can't sort through it. And entering every PRO for every car would also take months. Basically, it's impossible.

So basically, the magazine article is right. GM does know what RPO codes a specific VIN has after 1990. But they STILL can't break it down for you. If you don't believe me, go get a VIN off of a 91-up car in the mall parking lot and call your local GM dealer, then try to order an RPO specific part.

 

GM can look up the vehicle's VIN and find out what RPOs were ordered with that car. Thats all that means. I did this a few years ago when I got my '83 - took the VIN to a dealer, and they were able to print out a sheet listing all the RPOs that came with the car when it was ordered. In Canada the years can go back alot farther, but in the US it only goes back to the '90 model year.

 

You only need the last 8 digits of the VIN. If there were more than one model of car made with the same last 8 digits, the full VIN for all of the possibilites would pop up (say a camaro, a chevy pickup, and a buick century) . If you know how the VIN starts for a particular car (1G1A for my camaro for example) you could get all the data.

 

Who cares.....