Vin Number and Bently manual
 

Good Morning all,
Just got my new shop manual from Bentley and am quite pleased but a bit disappointed that the 2003-2004 cars are not represented as completely as the pre 2003 cars...codes, head removal (so far). Did discover an interesting fact for me at least...my 2004 Boxster was assembled in Finland not Germany....it has a "u" and not an "s" in the vin.

Probably 90% of the Boxsters imported into the US will have the U (for Uusikaupunki, Finland) in the VIN, as opposed to the S (Stuttgart).
The first batch of cars in '97 were all built in Stuttgart, but shortly after that Porsche contracted with the Valmet company in Finland to produce the Boxster. The drive train was/is still made in Germany (engines & trans, probably other stuff too), but assemby is in Finland for the most part.

Hi,

As Ronzi says, most US Market Boxsters (the most ROW for that matter) were assembled in Uusikaupunki, Finland by Valmet, AG. Valmet is a Subcontracted Auto Assembler specializing in producing Convertible Cars. They produce all the Saab Convertibles and Volvo Convertibles, and have for some time.

This is not a Bad Thing as the Customer Satisfaction Rates for those Cars leaving Valmet exceed those coming from Stuttgart, and Warranty Claims are lower. Which, if you think about it, makes some sense.

The Workers in Valmet are Finnish, which has a 95% HS Graduation Rate and a 100% Literacy Rate. The Cars from Stuttgart are assembled by Foreign Workers, primarily from North Africa, where the Educational and Literacy Rates are far lower. Plus, these NA Countries have not been Industrialized for near as long.

Add to this that it's totally in keeping with Porsche's History of producing Cars. No 914 was ever produced in Stuttagrt and several other models, including the 356, 912 and some 911's were manufactured elsewhere, including Czechoslovakia. Hope this helps...

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99