Where the hell is my VIN?! Missing Windshield VIN

[cbrenthus]

Great news, I found a VIN for you, but once you accept it you can't get rid of it because it becomes family!

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[huey]

I kind of find it comical at this point.

Maybe a ford employee will stumble upon this and realize... oh Sh#@% that's the truck I forgot to attach the VIN to.

Hey - if this is a one off situation you now have the rarest Bronco of all! CONGRATS!

 

[FatsWaller]

Hey - if this is a one off situation you now have the rarest Bronco of all! CONGRATS!

Limited Edition, be jealous!

 

[5GENIDN]

Limited Edition, be jealous!

Could be like those rare collectors coins when the mint has a misprint..... They tend to go for hundreds if not thousands of times the face value????!!!!!

 

[Roger123]

What a mess and to add insult to injury you have to deal with the police and DMV, ugh! Best of luck to you. I'd do everything in my power to not have a "special" VIN created. That may make re-sale a bit tough.

 

[FatsWaller]

What a mess and to add insult to injury you have to deal with the police and DMV, ugh! Best of luck to you. I'd do everything in my power to not have a "special" VIN created. That may make re-sale a bit tough.

I agree. That is my main concern at this moment. Otherwise when I sell, Ill just have to include a printed copy of this thread

 

[Sunday Money]

@FatsWaller I've been following this thread since it started and agree there's no fraud, just a PITA.

That said, at one point you considered going to a different DMV location, and letting them inspect it.
The CA DMV form clearly had other options for VIN verification other than the through the windshield (engine compartment, door frame, and other). All those boxes should be checked for you!

Wouldn't that be worth a try, especially since it's your best option for sustaining the least amount of pain? If you get rejected again, you have the CHP follow-up already scheduled.

Also, pretty sure your rejection below is not in the DMV system since they never recorded a VIN to track it

 

[timhood]

So another commenter that has not read the 10 pages of discussion.....
Trying to be helpful, but......
I wonder if there is a way to turn off comments for the first half of a thread?
After reading the entire discussion there could still be reasonable/viable comments that could be helpful....
We see this with a lot of threads. People are trying to be helpful but they missed the entire discussion to this point..... Maybe if we were able to limit comments to the last 15 or 20 posts???
I don't know is there a threshold that would work?

I've often felt like forums like this would benefit from the OP or someone being able to hide any replies that don't add to the discussion. It's so annoying when you're looking for an answer to a problem and read dozens (or more) of posts that don't help, but you have to keep going because maybe your answer is post #173. Of course, now I've just added to the chaff.

A certain well-known consumer electronics company has online forums that allow the OP to mark which post solved their problem and that appears first, immediately below the original post. That's helpful in getting to solutions faster. But then again, they aren't making money on getting you to click through a zillion pages so they can display all those ads.

 

[timhood]

Hey - if this is a one off situation you now have the rarest Bronco of all! CONGRATS!

Think of how much this will pull at action: "One of only one Bronco ever equipped like this."

 

[brkdncr]

I've often felt like forums like this would benefit from the OP or someone being able to hide any replies that don't add to the discussion. It's so annoying when you're looking for an answer to a problem and read dozens (or more) of posts that don't help, but you have to keep going because maybe your answer is post #173. Of course, now I've just added to the chaff.

A certain well-known consumer electronics company has online forums that allow the OP to mark which post solved their problem and that appears first, immediately below the original post. That's helpful in getting to solutions faster. But then again, they aren't making money on getting you to click through a zillion pages so they can display all those ads.

or use a rating system to promote good content and demote bad content. Reddit does this, and any of the federated lemmy services do too.

 

[Salt Shaker]

Have you noticed any black helicopters hovering over your house or following you around?

 

[FatsWaller]

@Ford Motor Company

Ha worth a try here. Cmon @Ford Motor Company send your VIN experts my way!

@FatsWaller I've been following this thread since it started and agree there's no fraud, just a PITA.

That said, at one point you considered going to a different DMV location, and letting them inspect it.
The CA DMV form clearly had other options for VIN verification other than the through the windshield (engine compartment, door frame, and other). All those boxes should be checked for you!

Wouldn't that be worth a try, especially since it's your best option for sustaining the least amount of pain? If you get rejected again, you have the CHP follow-up already scheduled.

Also, pretty sure your rejection below is not in the DMV system since they never recorded a VIN to track it

I agree. I don't think its in the system. He literally filled this form out and handed it to me. There wasn't any other form of recording it. I may try a different DMV while I wait for a response from Ford after calling them

 

[Phil Brown]

All Ford is going to do is say that there is NO way that it left thier hands with no vin # on it, nothing they can do

 

[M Redwood]

I'm just curious as to scammed in what way or what the motive would be, I know where the guy who sold me the car lives, his name, his paperwork. He's got the window stickers and everything as well as the documents he signed when he purchased it new. I also bought it through Autotraders PSX so they verify the title and the history of the vehicle as well as both sellers identities and handle the paperwork, so I feel if someone is going to scam you, there are much easier platforms to do so. Not saying its not possible but I could easily go beat this dudes door down if it came to that so seems like a crappy scam.

i also used AT PSX out of state thought it worked very well...

 

[Dreamer]

At this point I do. I've now looked at dozens of VINs on new broncos and had some sent to me up close without the windshield on and it looks 99% like the VIN number is printed directly on that FoMoCo security background.

Autotrader is aware but a lawyer for who and what? I mean I can try but I doubt I can prove Ford screwed up. The PO had no idea and is working with me to figure it all out. The VINs on the engine block, frame, and numerous stickers on the vehicle including the app all match. Autotrader ran full checks on the vehicle with no flags.

Ive taken it to two Ford dealers now and both think it was a manufacturing error as the security sticker would be damaged as its supposed to be if you try to alter or remove it, yet mine is in perfect condition.

They both gave me a number to ford to open a case so that's what I'm doing now but getting a blue tag may just be simpler and my appointment for that is on March 12th with CHP.

I highly doubt anything nefarious has occurred here. The PO is the original owner and records prove that. Like I said he is still in contact with me and has offered to even go in person to the dealer he purchased it new from to discuss it with them (not sure what this would accomplish). No scammer or thief would or even could replace all the VIN stickers on the car in every area, somehow laser etch a new VIN into the engine block and reprogram the OBD to read the correct VIN. So there is no point to go through all that work and then remove a VIN number from the dash and not even replace or attempt fake it.

Its more than likely ill just have to get it inspected by CHP on the 12th, they'll clear it and issue me my blue tag so I can register it. I doubt Ford will be much help but I am going to keep trying.



If only... watch for my book deal and podcast next

How did you make out with the CHP? Did you get the stickers so you can register the bronco? I want to see how the story ends.

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