[Balto]

I'm with @mudder, all the vins should be available to the public. It's not 'sensitive' information and I'm not sure where this unguided notion is coming from. I can walk up to any car, like Julian did at the Honda dealer, and get vins, why is this information being kept like the ark of the covenant? Lol

Also, CarFax's can be had for a WHOLE lot cheaper than that. There are many Russian websites that sell CarFax's for 2-4$ea.

 

[AfterEffect]

It sounds like I need to either make mileage not required (easiest) or add an "unknown" option. That field is locked to numerical values, so I may go with option 1.

We have JHMZE1350YT000032 (has A/C fitted) but it fails your check digit test.

This is interesting. I was working under the assumption that UK vehicles should have a "2" in the 12th position of the VIN, which that VIN does not. It certainly fails the check.
The check digit for US vehicles is calculated using a weighted sum of the other 16 VIN characters, with letters transliterated to numbers. (A to 1, B to 2, etc). The sum is divided by 11, and the remainder becomes the check digit. If the remainder is 10, the check digit is represented as X so it remains a single character.
If that VIN were a US car, the check digit would be 5.

That is also not a VIN that exists in my US data. I wonder if some of the sequential VINs just didn't get a check digit, and were sent to the UK?

Is there a VIN 0001 for 2004? I have 0002, and there is evidence suggesting that it was used for tuning or testing before it was sold.

I also don't have a VIN 0001 for 04. My data agrees that 0007 is the first MT. I own 0023, which is the 10th Navy Blue. It is also a CVT.

I'm with @mudder, all the vins should be available to the public.

I can't speak for Julians data, but my only concern with releasing the VIN list was that it could piss off a few people and limit engagement. If that is not the case, I have no issue releasing a sanitized list of VINs with their associated colors. Some of the other data I am collecting could be "sensitive",so I will only be showing it in graph form if at all.

I believe dealers have the option to have an unlimited plan, but I'm sure the cost isn't cheap. I think the plan is on a month-to-month basis, but don't quote me on it.

Also, CarFax's can be had for a WHOLE lot cheaper than that. There are many Russian websites that sell CarFax's for 2-4$ea.

I have some previous experience working with Carfax and other providers. We could sign up for an API account, and request certain "groups" of data points. The price per report depends on how many groups you want per VIN. I'm sure I could get it down to ~$1/VIN for the data we need, but that's still $14k. I'm not paying that out of pocket, and I don't want to monetize the registry.

 

[Balto]

It sounds like I need to either make mileage not required (easiest) or add an "unknown" option. That field is locked to numerical values, so I may go with option 1.




This is interesting. I was working under the assumption that UK vehicles should have a "2" in the 12th position of the VIN, which that VIN does not. It certainly fails the check.
The check digit for US vehicles is calculated using a weighted sum of the other 16 VIN characters, with letters transliterated to numbers. (A to 1, B to 2, etc). The sum is divided by 11, and the remainder becomes the check digit. If the remainder is 10, the check digit is represented as X so it remains a single character.
If that VIN were a US car, the check digit would be 5.

That is also not a VIN that exists in my US data. I wonder if some of the sequential VINs just didn't get a check digit, and were sent to the UK?



I also don't have a VIN 0001 for 04. My data agrees that 0007 is the first MT. I own 0023, which is the 10th Navy Blue. It is also a CVT.



I can't speak for Julians data, but my only concern with releasing the VIN list was that it could piss off a few people and limit engagement. If that is not the case, I have no issue releasing a sanitized list of VINs with their associated colors. Some of the other data I am collecting could be "sensitive",so I will only be showing it in graph form if at all.






I have some previous experience working with Carfax and other providers. We could sign up for an API account, and request certain "groups" of data points. The price per report depends on how many groups you want per VIN. I'm sure I could get it down to ~$1/VIN for the data we need, but that's still $14k. I'm not paying that out of pocket, and I don't want to monetize the registry.

Nobody is going to get upset the vins are available. Lol. Again, unguided notion.

Removing the mileage section from the form would be a mistake. All junked cars with no mileage can simply assume the 000000 mileage number.

 

[AfterEffect]

I have disabled the mileage field requirement for Parts, Crushed and Unknown status vehicles. Selecting one of those will automatically grey out the mileage field.

I don't want to poison the US data with impossible VINs, so I will be creating a separate "ROW" entry field for UK/EU/AU/etc rather than removing the check digit verification.

 

[AfterEffect]

Full public list of VINs here:

It has been sanitized and cut down to just the relevant fields. I also completed a registration page for Australian, European and Japanese Insights here: https://tinkergear.com/insight/register_entry_row.html

It has not been tested as thoroughly as the NA entry form since I only had a few VINs and chassis numbers to test with. Please let me know if there are any bugs.

 

[Balto]

Woohoo! The ark has been opened! Why is my face melting?

Anyway, thanks for releasing this. It's very interesting data for sure.

 

[mudder]

@AfterEffect, in post#45:
-As-found: the sum for MY2000 "Without A/C" is QTY3016
-Proposed: the sum for MY2000 "Without A/C" is QTY5554

Related: I think the "With A/C" quantity column is missing:

MY2000	5554	MT	5554	CVT	0	W/ AC	???	W/out AC	3016
MY2001	3408	MT	1908	CVT	1500	W/ AC	???	W/out AC	445
MY2002	2001	MT	633	CVT	1368	W/ AC	???	W/out AC	117
MY2003	1010	MT	334	CVT	676	W/ AC	???	W/out AC	64
MY2004	535	MT	157	CVT	378	W/ AC	???	W/out AC	24
MY2005	579	MT	257	CVT	321	W/ AC	???	W/out AC	44
MY2006	802	MT	447	CVT	355	W/ AC	???	W/out AC	57

 

[AfterEffect]

-As-found: the sum for MY2000 "Without A/C" is QTY3016
-Proposed: the sum for MY2000 "Without A/C" is QTY5554

Related: I think the "With A/C" quantity column is missing:

You're right, that column got wiped out. It should be 2538 with A/C for MY2000. I'll fix that tomorrow.

 

[jime]

Is it one of the objectives to determine the current status of as many cars as possible?

BTW, great work by both of you gentlemen

 

[GreenWheels]

Full public list of VINs here:

It has been sanitized and cut down to just the relevant fields. I also completed a registration page for Australian, European and Japanese Insights here: https://tinkergear.com/insight/register_entry_row.html

It has not been tested as thoroughly as the NA entry form since I only had a few VINs and chassis numbers to test with. Please let me know if there are any bugs.

Your persistent sleuthing around to find all this data is truly outstanding. Thanks so much for pulling this altogether. I entered my VIN (3154) and, finding the status was unknown, updated all the info on this car, still rolling along!

 

[julianachos]

Is it one of the objectives to determine the current status of as many cars as possible?

That is the goal.

 

[AfterEffect]

Is it one of the objectives to determine the current status of as many cars as possible?

Yes, that is one of the goals for me as well, and why I developed the registry rather than just releasing the spreadsheet.

The next step on this project is to scrape used car sales, insurance auctions, etc. Using this information I can make an educated guess as to whether a car has been scrapped or is still on the road and get it's last known location. I can also collect images and other data to help fill in the gaps. Once I have more data I can add a graph to visualize the number of scrapped/driving/unknown vehicles.

I would strongly encourage people to add as many VINs as they can to the registry. A lot of this has to be crowd sourced.

 

[AfterEffect]

Woohoo, we're up to 100 submissions already! Keep them coming guys.

My scraping tool is hard at work collecting data from auction sites.While a VIN running through insurance auction doesn't guarantee that it has been scrapped (several of my Insights were purchased at auction), it is a pretty good indicator, especially if there is body damage.

I am weighting the script to change the status of a VIN to "scrapped" if it appears in auction listings with body damage and the estimated repair cost exceeds $4000, unless there is a later record of it somewhere else. I'm recording "mechanical" damage (likely failed IMA battery), but I'm not sure how to weigh it. Maybe 50% of those VINs get marked as scrapped? Possibly more?

Carfax data would give us a better picture of the VINs that have run through the auction, but I don't think we're there yet. Maybe I need a "Likely scrapped" field to be less authoritative.


2002:
534 VINs (26.6%)

2003:
275 VINs (27.2%)

2004:
238 VINs (44.4%)

2005:
146 VINs (25.2%)

2006:
280 VINs (34.9%)


The percentage of discovered VINs rises in the later years unless 2004 and 2006 are anomalies, which is the opposite of what I would expect. I do not claim this data to be complete or accurate, but it makes for interesting discussion.

 

[AfterEffect]

Apologies for triple posting, but I have more news.

I have a full list of Australian Insights, along with their matching colors. There were 46 total imports (1 in '00, 43 in '01, 2 in '02). 45 of those were sold, and 1 must have been a test or crash car, as it has no records and I cannot find the color.

Total:	46
Manual:	45
CVT:	0
Silver	20
Red	16
Citrus	7
Black	2

I am now working on UK data. I found a method of scraping the information but I have no way of verifying it.
I show a total of 121 Insights produced for the UK market in 2000, but I'm unsure about some of the colors.

 

[Gasoline Fumes]

Status of JHMZE137XYT000054?
It's featured in the 2000 Electrical Troubleshooting Manual. VIN visible in the battery ground photo.

 

[Gasoline Fumes]

I would strongly encourage people to add as many VINs as they can to the registry. A lot of this has to be crowd sourced.

What if State isn't known? I assume that's the last known location? Does that need to be a required field?

 

[AfterEffect]

Status of JHMZE137XYT000054?

Silver, 5 speed manual with A/C. I have it in my sheet as "Unknown". Last seen at 234,333 miles at an insurance auction. Unknown sale date, unknown price.

What if State isn't known? I assume that's the last known location? Does that need to be a required field?

If you can, the last known location is great. I suppose I could change it to be an optional field, but then a lot of people would stop filling it in.

 

[Gasoline Fumes]

JHMZE14721T002188 possibly owned, or at least serviced, by Audra Fordin of Motorweek.

Understanding Your Repair Bills | MotorWeek Your Drive

motorweek.org

 

[Gasoline Fumes]

Silver, 5 speed manual with A/C. I have it in my sheet as "Unknown". Last seen at 234,333 miles at an insurance auction. Unknown sale date, unknown price.

Neat! I wasn't sure if it would've led a "normal" life after being photographed for the manual.

 

[Gasoline Fumes]

Have you looked for junked VINs on Car-Part.com--Used Auto Parts Market