So I supposedly have a build week of 7/31... Should my dealer have the full VIN already or does that wait until after it's been built ? I called to get the VIN once this week so I could endure the ERL, but the dealer never called me back.

The other thing, if... IF, I do get the VIN and I can call ERL... my dealer is female.. try as I might, I'm not gonna sound like her when I call to get my status... is there a better way or another way around this ?


Thanks.

 

Habu,

My build is week of 7/31 too and my dealer was able to provide my VIN.

I use the order number from my DORA for all my ERL calls, though; the consensus on this forum is that it's almost impossible to get the ERL's voice-recognition system to capture a full VIN correctly.

As for the voice/gender thing, I wouldn't worry about it - just use some combination of her name and yours, or any other choice that amuses you. The VOPC people don't seem too hung up on it, as long as you claim to be from the dealer I don't think they research it beyond that. Given the high turnover at dealers, there's no way they have access to a full list of salespeople anyway.

Just stay away from the old Bart Simpson standards, like "Seymour Butts" and "Ivana Tinkle".

Bill

 

A VIN is assigned as soon as a car is scheduled for production which is several weeks in advance of it being built. So if your car is scheduled to be built next week, you would have had a VIN over a month ago.

 

Ivana tinkle... hahahaha

Now having the full VIN a month ago has me wondering. She called me excited about it being scheduled and said yesterday that the 7/31 week is still good to go. I haven't pushed her too much on this issue 'cause she has been very helpfull. I'm gonna call and see if I can get that VIN now....


updates a little later today....

 

Whoo-Hoo....

Got my full VIN... Apparently there is only ONE computer that my dealer can pull that info from and she's been stuck at her desk for the last couple of days. Needless to say this made my Friday.

Now, I need to get on the ERL and let them know Ivana Tinkle needs an update...


Anyone have the codes for the VIN that shows what each of the letters/numbers mean ??

 

If you go to the Ford fleet web site they have a VIN decoder there...

 

Thanks for the info on the fleet site. I was wondering the same thing about the VIN. Do you know where I can find out the info on the build date and the other dates I see on everyones sig block? I just received my order number last week and ERL says my car will be here 8/5/06 . Thanks for any info you can provide.

Mark

 

Well, since Kzinti can no longer help us get those dates, you kind of have to call the ERL every day and listen to her language to kind of figure them out. The date that she said you got serialized is your serialized date. The date that you got "scheduled" is your segmented date.

We have discovered that in the lower right hand corner of the sticker, it has the build date encoded in the number. Look for a bunch of numbers with a 2006MMDD in it somewhere. The 20060718 date on mine corresponded to the date that my unit became bucked...

 

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately I think I'm past all those dates since the car will be here Friday. I will look for the date you mentioned from the window sticker. Again thanks for your help.

Mark