Who has the original VIN placard from a Coupe they've owned?

Aren't the vin #'s also stamped on the top of firewall, passenger side and on a plate riveted on the steering column cover?

I would hope that when buying an e9 one would check to see if the numbers match. No?

If you have a '72 and get a vin# for a '74 what would you sell it or register it as? a '72 or '74? An email to Andreas at BMW to get the history of the car would show a discrepancy opening you up to a lawsuit for fraudulent sale.

Also, if you, or someone steals your car and get into a serious accident with one or mare fatalities you can bet the CHP would get involved. An investigation would show a discrepancy in the vin # and I'm confident the insurance company would invalidate the insurance claiming it was obtained under fraud.

This could again expose you to some serious lawsuit. There a many more ramifications to this. I don't think this scheme was fully thought out.

My two 'pfennig'.
 
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Greetings:

This topic comes up regularly on a vintage Mustang forum that I frequent. At the end of the day it comes down to fraud. If a car is being passed off as something it is not, what legitimate purpose is being furthered?

Not to mention that "official" VIN numbers can only be assigned by the manufacturer and Federal and State criminal statutes consistently come down on VIN tampering.

Last, but not least, if one is considering switching VIN's it would be prudent to not publicize the plan on the internet.
 
I think the people that had nefarious intentions would probably not post on the internet and are probably lurking in the wings as they read our thread, but those with a good conscience would not be worried about it. I think many Coupe owners would like to figure out a way to not allowing an insurance company and the DMV to diminish the value of their restored Coupe. As another example, I still can't see why putting a car together from 3 different parted out cars is considered legal by many posters, but you can't chose which VIN to use, no matter how much of the car has been replaced around that VIN? How about if your Coupe needed a new front clip? You would stamp in your old VIN number if you bought brand new parts, but you'd be forced to use the VIN of the donor car, if you welded in used parts? Would you be committing a crime if you used the VIN of the donor clip and your original (or non-original engine), interior, drive train, etc?...
 
Interesting dilemma. I appreciate the difficult situation one might find themselves in when an original pristine car is either branded a Salvage or becomes a patch quilt of parts from multiple donors. Clearly there is no single easy answer and to my knowledge there is no litmus test for how much car can be replaced and still be legally considered the original car. Nonetheless, VIN tampering has legal/criminal ramifications in most jurisdictions.

Circling back around, if the value of a particular car is in large part connected to it's factory assigned original VIN and a state issued VIN results in a diminished value, one should consider why. Perhaps the lower value is connected with the fact that the current Frankenstein car is not the factory original. As a buyer of such a reconstructed car, would you pay top dollar for a car that is not a factory original? As a seller, how do you reconcile the truth with getting top dollar?

Lastly, consider the situation where a "clean" VIN with paperwork is attached to a stolen car and then sold to an unknowing buyer. There have been situations in the past couple of years around my area where the salvage switch car is discovered 40+ years later. In both situations, the original owner got his car back and the current "innocent" buyer was left standing on the side of the road without a car. The person who made the switch is long gone and so is the money.
 
jefftepper said:
Lastly, consider the situation where a "clean" VIN with paperwork is attached to a stolen car and then sold to an unknowing buyer. There have been situations in the past couple of years around my area where the salvage switch car is discovered 40+ years later. In both situations, the original owner got his car back and the current "innocent" buyer was left standing on the side of the road without a car. The person who made the switch is long gone and so is the money.
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i know of a similar case where a friend had bought a 2002. it was stolen a month after he bought it - apparently by the seller. who then swapped the VIN plaques to the original and sold it again. no idea how many times this happened. the state police found the car with the original VIN totaled and rusted out under a tree a few years later. the way this was discovered was that the wrecked car didn't have a sunroof.
 
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