We have made a lot of progress in the five and a half months since the start of our Koenigsegg Registry. We have now identified 25 cars by chassis number (around one-third of total production), and have obtained the complete VIN of 19 of these. For those of you who may be wondering what the significance is of these VINs, and what all those numbers and letters mean, I’ve decided to put together a post explaining just that.
Prior to 1981, all automobile manufacturers had different methods of assigning VINs and serial numbers to their cars. Beginning in the 1981 model year, nearly all vehicle manufacturers began adhering to a new, standardized 17-digit VIN structure. This VIN structure is still in use today, and applies to motorcycles, medium duty trucks, and even trailers. Each character of the VIN represents or indicates various aspects of the vehicle, allowing it to be positively identified by government agencies, licensing agencies, insurance agencies and law enforcement agencies. I will break down the various components of the VIN and how their characters are derived.
The Basics
The first three digits of the VIN are the World Make Identifier (WMI). Every manufacturer has its own WMI, which may or may not be unique to that manufacturer (more on this later). The first character of the WMI (and thus the first digit of every VIN) designates the country of origin (see Appendix A). For Sweden, this digit is Y. Digits 2-3 of the VIN are then used to further identify the manufacturer. Digits 2-3 are usually letters (for example Ferrari is ZFF), but in the case of a manufacturer of less than 500 vehicles a year (such as Koenigsegg, Spyker, Bugatti), digit 3 will always be 9. Thus, Koenigsegg’s WMI is YT9.
Digits 12-17 of the VIN are used for the manufacturer’s sequential production number (serial number, or chassis number). However, in the case of a manufacturer who builds less than 500 vehicles a year, digits 12-14 are used to further identify the manufacturer. The reason for this is illustrated by Saleen and SSC. Both of these U.S. car manufacturers have a WMI (digits 1-3) of 1S9; therefore they need to be distinguished by different digits 12-14. Saleen uses 000 and SSC uses 944. Digits 12-14 for Koenigsegg are 007, with digits 15-17 being used for the sequential production number.
Digit 11 is used by the manufacturer to identify the plant the vehicle was assembled at. For Koenigseggs built at the Angelholm facility, this digit is A. I would guess that earlier Koenigseggs would have an 11th digit of M for Margretetorp. I do not know whether any cars were ever assembled at the Olofstrom facility, but if there were, such cars would carry a different 11th digit as well.
By combining the above, we can establish that the base VIN structure for any Angelholm- assembled Koenigsegg is YT9xxxxxxxA007###.
Further, digit 10 indicates the vehicle model year (see Appendix B). It is not the same as production date. Vehicles must be built to conform to certain regulatory specifications in many worldwide markets. As far as any government or licensing agency is concerned, digit 10 indicates the model year of that car, and it must conform to regulations in place for that model year. Some small, boutique manufacturers who hand-build their cars (such as Morgan or Spyker) will sometimes make running changes to their production which will lead to some confusion as to what year a car is. But the 10th digit of the VIN is word. In the U.S. (and for all I know, the rest of the world as well), a car cannot be offered for sale more than one New Year’s Day ahead of its calendar model year. The most extreme case of this is the 1997 Ford F150 pickup truck. Ford began shipping 1997 F150’s to dealers on January 2, 1996. This means that there are 1997 Ford F150’s with production dates as early as Fall of 1995.
The ninth digit of the VIN is the check digit. The check digit is used to identify cases of VIN fraud, and is calculated through a complicated formula that I will not get into here (there are other sites to find this formula). For our purposes it is enough to know that the 9th digit, the check digit, can only be numbers 0-9, or X. (There seems to be an issue with the check digits of Koenigsegg VINs, see Appendix C).
The Fun Stuff
This leaves digits 4-8, which are used by the manufacturers to identify the specific vehicle and how it is equipped, as they see fit. These characters will vary by manufacturer, although it should be noted that most major U.S. manufacturers use digit 8 to identify the engine. With the good sample of Koenigsegg VINs that we have collected, certain patterns regarding digits 4-8 of Koenigsegg CCX-series VINs have begun to emerge:
It appears that digits 6-7 are being used to identify the market the car was built for. For U.S. market Koenigseggs, these digits are 33. Car #50 was found in Australia, and has digits 6-7 of 44. Cars #40 and #53 were found in Japan and Dubai and have digits 6-7 of 81, likely indicating Asia. Car #60 is a right-hand-drive CCXR and has digits 6-7 of 91. The rest of the CCX’s we have found VINs for are European cars, and carry digits 6-7 of 11, with the exception of #32, which is right-hand-drive and has digits 6-7 of 21.
Digit 4 for CCX-series cars appears to be X in all cases; however digit 5 has some variations. In all European, Asian and Australian cases, digit 5 is C. But U.S. spec cars have digit 5 of H. Even more strange is the fact that U.S. cars have a different digit 5 if the car is a CCXR (D), but for all other markets digit 5 is the same whether the car is a CCX or a CCXR. It does not appear that European Edition models are being distinguished by variations in the VIN, however U.S. market Edition cars are; these care digits 4-5 of ED. Digit 8 changes back and forth from A to B with no pattern; I cannot yet find any link to the assigning of this digit to the way cars are equipped.
To summarize, from what we can determine as of now, digits 4-7 are assigned as follows:
ED33 – U.S. CCX/CCXR Edition, left hand drive
XC11 – European CCX/CCXR, left hand drive
XC21 – European CCX, right hand drive
XC44 – Australian CCX, right hand drive
XC81 – Asian CCX, left hand drive
XC91 – European CCXR, right hand drive
XD33 – U.S. CCXR, left hand drive
XH33 – U.S. CCX, left hand drive
Early Koenigsegg VIN structure
For early Koenigseggs (CC8S and CCR), the VIN structure is much different. Digits 4-8 for all the early Koenigsegg VINs we have found so far are M1G0V. Further, it has come to my attention that some European market cars (such as European market Ferraris) do not use the 10th digit to indicate model year. It appears that this is the case with early Koenigseggs as well, as all of the early VINs we have found so far have 10th digits which should not be possible by the industry standard VIN structure I have outlined above. Even worse, the check digits of all of these early VINs are all 8. Either Koenigsegg did not know to calculate a check digit, or it is an amazing coincidence.
I do not know what Koenigsegg was using digits 10 and 11 for in its early days. Currently, I am guessing that digit 11 was being used to indicate model year. Looking at our registry, this would mean that #006 is a 2002 model year car, and #’s 21 and 22 are 2005 model year cars. Notice that in our registry we have #006 noted as a 2004 (or 2003, depending on the source), and #’s 21 and 22 are said to be 2006’s. I believe that due to their time intensive, hand built manufacture, final completion and delivery of Koenigseggs occurs long after their VINs have been determined and registered. As evidence, notice that as of late September 2009, we still have not seen a 2009-VIN’ed Koenigsegg, in the U.S. or otherwise. I also believe that in Europe (and for this I will need some verification from some of my European friends), a vehicle is titled as a specific year for the year it is first sold, not the year it was built. So it is possible that car #’s 006, 021 and 022 are actually one year “older”, in terms of model year, than what is recorded. Therefore it is my conclusion that the 11th digit of this early VIN structure, for CC8S and CCR cars, is the indicator of those cars’ official model years. But until I see some CC8S and CCR vehicle data plates, I will not know for sure.
I would also guess that the M in digit 4 of these VINs stands for Koenigsegg’s first assembly plant in Margretetorp. Why this M was not placed in the "standard" 11th digit position, I do not know. More confusing, however, is the fact that production moved to Angelholm in 2003, and yet CCR’s built in following years still carry a 4th digit of M in their VINs. Based on the time frame of Koenigsegg history with which I am familiar, I would say there would have to have been some CCR’s assembled at the Angelholm facility. So why the use of M in digit 4 for these early VINs continued, I cannot speculate. I also have no guess as to what digits 5-8 of 1G0V represent, although it is critical to note that for these VINs, digit 5 is a one (not I) and digit 7 is a zero (not O). (The letters I and O are never used in VINs, to prevent confusion with the numbers one and zero.) Discovery of more early Koenigsegg VINs should help clarify some of these issues further.
I do not know why Koenigsegg’s early VIN structure was so vastly different from what was (and is) the worldwide standard. Perhaps with their low production, Koenigsegg just didn’t know, and no one noticed or bothered to check. Although once CCX production began, Koenigsegg VIN structure falls exactly in line with what we would expect to see, as outlined above.
I hope you have found the above information interesting and informative. We can gain a lot more information with more verifiable VINs. If you are spotting for us, make sure to get a clear photograph of the VIN plate of any cars you come across; this is the most accurate and provable evidence. At the very least, write down the VIN. Thanks everybody!
This post will be updated as new information becomes available.
Appendix A
First digit of VIN, Country of Origin:
1 – United States of America
2 – Canada
3 – Mexico, Costa Rica
4 – United States of America
5 – United States of America
6 – Australia
7 – New Zealand
8 – Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela
9 – Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Trinidad and Tobago
A – South Africa, Ivory Coast
B – Angola, Kenya, Tanzania
C – Benin, Malagasy, Tunisia
D – Egypt, Morocco, Zambia
E – Ethiopia, Mozambique
F – Ghana, Nigeria, Madagascar
J – Japan
K – Sri Lanka, Israel, South Korea
L – China
M – India, Indonesia, Thailand
N – Pakistan, Turkey
P – Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia
R – United Arab Emirates, Taiwan, Vietnam
S – Great Britain, Germany, Poland
T – Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Portugal
U – Denmark, Ireland, Romania, Slovakia
V – Austria, France, Spain, Yugoslavia, Croatia, Estonia
W – Germany
X – Bulgaria, Greece, Netherlands, Russia, Luxembourg
Y – Belgium, Finland, Malta, Sweden, Norway, Belarus, Ukraine
Z – Italy, Slovenia, Lithuania
Appendix B
Tenth Digit of VIN, Model Year, 1981 and Newer
B – 1981 1 – 2001 M – 2021
C – 1982 2 – 2002 N – 2022
D – 1983 3 – 2003 P – 2023
E – 1984 4 – 2004 R – 2024
F – 1985 5 – 2005 S – 2025
G – 1986 6 – 2006 T – 2026
H – 1987 7 – 2007 V – 2027
J – 1988 8 – 2008 W – 2028
K – 1989 9 – 2009 X – 2029
L – 1990 A – 2010 Y – 2030
M – 1991 B – 2011 1 – 2031
N – 1992 C – 2012 2 – 2032
P – 1993 D – 2013 3 – 2033
R – 1994 E – 2014 4 – 2034
S – 1995 F – 2015 5 – 2035
T – 1996 G – 2016 6 – 2036
V – 1997 H – 2017 7 – 2037
W – 1998 J – 2018 8 – 2038
X – 1999 K – 2019 9 – 2039
Y – 2000 L – 2020
Appendix C
Ferrari expert and VIN Wizard Edvar van Daalen has discovered that Koenigsegg VINs do not seem to have check digits that conform to the standard VIN check digit calculation formula. In most cases the check digits that our known Koenigsegg VINs have contained are six values off from what they should be. It is not known why this is occurring, but we know that the VINs we have found are valid, as we have photographic evidence of many, and others can be verified as valid on services such as CarFax. This would not be the first instance of a small volume manufacturer getting the check digits wrong. There are at least three Vector W8’s and at least one SSC Ultimate Aero which have verifiable VINs on CarFax that have check digits which should be incorrect.
Last edited by mattjs33; 13th October 2009 at 20:50.
The Following User Says Thank You to mattjs33 For This Useful Post:
With the discovery of the VIN for #022 (thank you Matthias Kierse), we can learn a few more things about the VIN structure of the pre-CCX-series Koenigsegg cars.
It has come to my attention (thank you Edvar van Daalen) that some European-market cars do not use the 10th digit to indicate model year, for instance many earlier model European-market Ferraris. This surprised me; I thought the VIN structure was consistent worldwide! It is interesting though, that all CCX-series Koenigseggs, no matter which market they were intended for, do use the 10th digit for the year. So unfortunately it will be impossible to identify the model year of CC8S and CCR Koenigseggs by the tenth digit of the VIN.
The VIN of #022 is YT9M1G0V8J5007022. This structure is consistent with that of #021. If I insert a 0 (zero) into position 7 of the incomplete VIN for #006, I get many search results online for that car with a correct VIN of YT9M1G0V8D2007006. So we now have three early Koenigsegg VINs with a similar structure. I think I can safely say that digits 1-8 of CC8S and CCR cars' VINs would be YT9M1G0V (using a zero for digit 7). Being that "I" isn't used in VINs, I would have to guess then that #021's correct VIN is likely to be YT9M1G0V815007021 (using a zero for digit 7 and a one for digit 10).
There are some other oddities of this early VIN structure. Koenigsegg's first assembly plant of Margretetorp is most likely indicated by the M in digit 4 of this base structure. I have no explanation for why Koenigsegg was not using digit 11 to indicate the build plant. This raises the question of just what Koenigsegg was using digits 10 and 11 for during their early days.
The most fascinating thing is that when CCX production commenced, the Koenigsegg VIN structure falls perfectly in line with what we expect to see. Well, everything except that check digit problem!
Last edited by mattjs33; 19th September 2009 at 18:06.
Just wanted to let you know that the 11th digit isn't necessary connected with the plant where the car was built.
Pagani uses a "0" for coupe models and "1" for roadsters, and there is only one factory, neither an external chassis/body maker or assembler was ever used.
Even Spykers have very complicated VINs.
No matter how hard I searched I never found a unique method for creating VINs for makers who built less than 500 cars, there are a lot of websites providing info for standard VINs, but when it comes to smaller makers it all becomes very foggy.
My guess is that they are free to use at their will some of the digits, given their peculiar nature.
Yes, there are a lot of deviations from "standard VIN procedure" among the smaller makes, particularly with the check digits (for example U.S. Bitters all have a check digit of 9). But it is interesting to me that upon commencement of CCX production, Koenigsegg VINs mostly adhere to the standard form.
As far as I know Spyker VINs are normal? They carry an 11th digit of Z, for Zeewolde?
I don't know much about Paganis, I was poking around a while ago, as you know they are not legal in the U.S., but there are a few here anyway. I did find one VIN and as you say I found it to be rather screwy.
What I meant is that Spyker's VINs aren't following the same path as normally production cars, or at least this is the idea I got. I just started having a look at them tbh, and I saw there is some sort of scheme (and an excel file that I don't seem to be able to make it work).
There were four Zondas in the States, only one regularly registered and incidentally that car is now in Germany. So now there are only 3 cars, plus the track-only Zonda Monza.
Paganis VINs are:
ZA9C820C10SF76xxx for coupes
ZA9C820C110F76xxx for roadsters
with "xxx" beign the sequential number, obviously.
So as you see, only the 10th and 11th are different (I was wrong in my previous post, I was talking about the 11th digit while it actually was the 10th).
Spyker on the other hand has had more models and therefore the VINs are quite different, but they also differ among the cars from the same model, which I don't get it, like C8 Spyders with both GA and AA as the 4th and 5th digits.
Besides, something I don't know...where are the ID plates on Koenigseggs?
U.S. Koenigsegg CCX VINs are on a plate under the windshield glass at the lower driver's side base of the A-pillar, in accordnance with U.S. regulations. Many European CCX's that we have found VINs for also have this plate. I have not yet seen a photograph of a pre-CCX VIN, so I don't know if CCR/CC8S cars have this plate.
Webmaster 
).
Linear Mode
