Re: used vehicle research?

From: jon@dakota-truck.net
Date: Wed Jan 29 2003 - 16:22:53 EST


"Russ Borman" <xjruss@hotmail.com> wrote:

: I'm shopping for a new (to me) truck. Is there any place on-line that I
: could look up a VIN number and be able to see what that vehicle is equipped
: with? Like looking at the window sticker at the dealer? I don't know if
: Carfax or any of those services offers this?

   Not that I know of. There are VIN decoders out there, such as the
one of the DML home page (http://www.dakota-truck.net/vin) which will
give you some *basic* info like the engine and body style, however I
am not aware of any service which will give you the entire option
list.

  If you take the VIN to a Dodge/Chrysler dealer, they can punch it
into the computer and generate a 3 page printout showing all the
options (even more detailed than the window sticker). I assume
the other manufacturers can do this too. I guess it depends on how
comfortable you are asking the dealership to do this. If you are
looking at a used vehicle which a dealership is selling, I would
definitely ask them to generate the printout for me.

  Several years back, there was a DMLer who was a service manager
at a Dodge dealership who was considering offering a service to DMLers -
we would provide our VIN and he would send the printout as a scanned
in JPEG. It didn't work out though - it would have been too much
workload for him. He did do my truck as a test though. (That's how
I found out I had a 90 amp alternator installed instead of the 120
the truck was supposed to come with!)

   So anyway, to make a long story short, the only place that I know
of where such a report can be generated is at a dealership.

-- 

-Jon-

.---- Jon Steiger ------ jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com ------. | I'm the: AOPA, DoD, EAA, NMA, NRA, SPA, USUA. Rec & UL Pilot - SEL | | 70 Cuda, 90 Dak 'vert, 92 Ram 4x4, 96 Dak, 96 Intruder 1400, 96 FireFly | `------------------------------------------ http://www.jonsteiger.com ----'



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