Shotgun Chuck

One difference I've notices between car culture in America and Japan is that the Japanese use chassis codes regularly. Americans don't. America says Corolla GTS, Japan says AE86, America says MkIV Supra, Japan says JZA80, and so on.

Unfortunately, thinking about this has got me interested in what the chassis codes of traditional American cars are, and I'm having a difficult time finding any. Take this forum's car as example. '94 and up Mustangs do have well-known codes, except that I'm not actually sure if the New Edge Mustang would be called an SN99 or not (pretty sure I've seen that somewhere). '93 and earlier, all I have are colloquial names (Pony Mustang for '64-'70, Fat Mustang for '71-'73, Pintostang/no shorthand needed for '74-78, and Fox for '79-'93). The Eternal Rival, the GM F-body, is even worse, as the 3rd gens alone have about 20 different designations depending on year and trim - but I'm not sure if there are any codes available for newer or older models.

Could someone shed some light on this?

Urambo Tauro

Japan's automakers have been using codes that tend to be much more specific and organized than what has been practiced in the US. Our chassis codes cover a wide range of cars, because they only describe the underlying platform.

An MN12 could be a Thunderbird or a Cougar. Like the Mustangs of the time, it could have a 3.8, 5.0, or 4.6 engine. The code EG6, however, points to a certain variant of the 5th gen Civic, right down to the engine.

I don't think "SN99" is a thing. It's a misunderstanding of what SN95 means. "95" is not a reference to the year 1995. All New Edge Mustangs are SN95s. There is no "SN94", unless perhaps it's a concept locked away in Ford's R&D archives, that was abandoned in favor of the SN95 project.

jz78817

that's because they're snobs and are only interested in peacocking in front of other snobs. It's why I can't stand BMW owners; they'll barge into any forum or blog comment thread talking about their "E"-this with an "N"-that and act like they're genuinely surprised that not everyone in the entire world knows what they're talking about.

Ford platform codes have lately been pretty consistent, but around the late '90s they removed the vehicle's intended region from the platform code.

old way: class-region-generation. for example, the Taurus used to be "DN101." meaning "D" segment (large car,) "N"orth America, 101. The Lincoln LS was D/EW98. meaning intermediate "D/E" segment, "W"orld platform, 98. the '94-04 Mustang was SN95, which meant "S"port segment, "N"orth America, 95. that's been supplanted with a more defined method:

new way: class-generation. Some examples:

2004-2008 F-150: P221, "P"ickup 221.
2009-2014 F-150: P415
2015- F-150: P552

2005-2014 Mustang: S197, "S"port 197
2015- Mustang: S550

2000-2006 Taurus: D186, this is where the region code was dropped. Taurus went from DN101 to D186.
2005-2007 Five Hundred: D258
2008-2009 Taurus: D258
2010-2015 Taurus: D258 (no idea why the platform code has stayed the same.)

2006-2012 Fusion: CD338 (intermediate C/D segment 338)
2013- Fusion: CD391

2006-2015 Lincoln MKX: U378 ("U"tility 378)
2016- Lincoln MKX: U540

jz78817

so for current model Ford/Lincolns:

Ford Car:

Fiesta: B299
Focus: C346
C-Max: C344
Fusion: CD391
Taurus: D258
Mustang: S550

SUVs:

Escape: C520
Edge: CD539
Flex: D471
Transit Connect: V408
Explorer: U502
Expedition: U222

Trucks:

F-150: P552
Transit: V363
Super Duty: P473

Lincoln:

MKZ: CD533
MKC: C489
MKX: U540
MKS: D385
Navigator: U228

Shotgun Chuck

Thanks.

Shotgun Chuck

Reviving this thread to say: I've done some more looking into it, and it's not inconceivable to say that chassis codes could easily be assembled for other manufacturers to. For example, a Japanese-style code for my Sunbird would be 2JB1X.

- 2 is for Pontiac, from the three-digit World Manufacturer Identifier (GM has the 1G prefix - according to eHow, 1G1 is a Chevy passenger car, 1G2 is a Pontiac, 1GC is a Chevy truck, and they don't list any of the others).

- J is the platform.

- B is the series code, in this case indicating Pontiac Sunfire (Wikibooks is providing very thin information on this subject, so I can only assume that it was the same for Pontiac J-bodies before they were called the Sunfire)

- 1 is the body style, indicating a 2-door coupe.

- X is for the engine, indicating a 3.1L V6 with muti-port injection.

- Howsomeever, it could also be 2JB1T, since T also denotes a 3.1L V6, and I've heard this engine in this application referred to as the "T-code" engine anyway.

jz78817

no idea why you'd want to do that, but knock yourself out.

Shotgun Chuck

A lot of reasons. Mainly because I'm bored.

I went and checked and it's 2JB1T. A new problem has surfaced, however: It's finally registered in my mind that chassis codes are often not really related to VIN codes. I my case, the hodgepodge of VIN digits might be the best I can do since GM probably only referred to the J platform as "J".

jz78817

practically none of them do. the problem is that one car model can have several VIN codes depending on trim level. A Fusion (CD391) can have VIN codes P0G, P0D, P0L, P0K, P0T, and some others depending on whether it's an S, SE, Titanium, 1.5, 2.0, AWD, hybrid, etc. and these three characters can be whatever the manufacturer wants them to be.

Shotgun Chuck

Well, in that case, they all start with P0, so you could simply add the last digit to the platform code: CD391G, CD391D, CD391L, and so forth.

Still highly unofficial though.

I suppose when every company has different conventions it can get a bit difficult.

What started me on deriving from VIN codes was the Toyota AE85/86/88, with which the chassis code actually appears in the VIN (or, in the case of the AE88, shows up as one in the VIN but another on the engine number... or something... ask a Toyota nerd because I'm not sure. I'm also not sure how Toyota themselves kept it all straight.)

(Stupid site, stop telling me the token has expired)