VIN and Production Number
 

Do the last numbers in the VIN tell the production build number?

I've picked up an 06 Cayman S that I plan to resell. It's loaded and I noticed it has a Sep 2005 build date. There was a thread on Planet-9 about Cayman S Launch Vehicles - early production cars sent to Porsche dealers to garner interest in the new Cayman model. The description of color and options matched my car and I asked how to determine if it's a Launch Vehicle. I was told it's listed as an option and someone helped me decode my options. It has the Launch Vehicle option (762).

So now that I've determined it's an early build Cayman S, does the VIN contain the production number? The last 4 digits are 0267. Is that significant?

I find this VIN Decoder helpful. http://www.renntech.org/forums/content/vin_decoder/ only problem is, you have to be a member to use it.

Thanks for the link, but I've already got the options decoded from the VIN. I'm wondering if the VIN contains the production number.

The options are:

BSEMDL BASE 2006 Cayman S .00
TOPCLR X1 Arctic Silver Metallic .00
INTERI AN Black Standard Leather .00
OPTION 342 Seat heating (front) .00
OPTION 403 19" Carrera S Wheel .00
OPTION 482 system. .00
OPTION 435 3-Spoke Sport Steering Wheel .00
OPTION 475 PASM .00
OPTION 640 Sport Chrono Package .00
OPTION 680 BOSE® Surround Sound System .00
OPTION P74 Bi-Xenon(TM)w/Dynam Corner Sys .00
OPTION P16 PCM 2.1 .00
OPTION 762 Launch vehicle .00
OPTION M6A Black Mats - Porsche lettering .00
BDYCLR X1 Arctic Silver Metallic .00

Option 762 says it's a Launch vehicle. Now I'm trying to determine if the last 4 digits in the VIN (0267) indicates it's production number.

Yes. Digits 14-17 indicate vehicle production #.

What is a Launch vehicle in the Porsche world?? In my profession that means a space-lift rocket.

The Cayman S was introduced in the fall of 2005. Porsche whipped up a batch of silver cars and black cars to send to the dealers to put on their showroom floors. The silver cars were all speced the same with loads of options. The black cars had fewer options. The dealers were not supposed to sell which ever Launch Vehicle they got. They were for generating traffic and attention until Porsche could get more Caymans in the pipeline.

It's my understanding Porsche does this often when a new version is coming out. There evidently was a 2005 Boxster Launch Vehicle. I've never heard of them before, don't know how many they made of the silver Caymans. But they had to be early production numbers. I had no idea what I had until someone started a thread about Launch Vehicles. The description fit my Cayman S and sure enough, it had the right option code. Hoepfully the next owner is looking for a low serial # 2006 Cayman S.

Interesting... Makes sense if the factory needs to build quicker than normal to keep all vehicle options the same. Thanks for the education.