Answers to Fiat questions

[CARIBOULH <CARIBOULH@domain.elided>]

In ICD #270, Vincent Gulley asked....
<< My question is this:  
    1) how reliable are the fiat production figures?  
    2) Are the VIN #  assigned sequentially or did they skip numbers ?
 
    3) The 1608cc engine is listed as a 125BC000 yet both of mine
         read 125BC040 what is the significance of the 000 vs. 040 ?
    4)  What is the spares number used for?
    5) can anyone translate the color codes?
  >>

Dear Vincent, the answers are:
1) incredibly UN-reliable!!! I know of cars with VIN's after Fiat says there
were no more, VIN's for an earlier or later year than Fiat says it should be
and all sorts of other "creative" examples.
2) See answer to #1. You better believe that these cars DID NOT come off the
line sequentially!
3) I'll need to spend some more time researching this one. Don't know the
answer off the top of my head.
4) Spares number is a code assigned to the cars indepenedent of either
production date or VIN number to indicate when certain changes were made to
cars during the course of production. Lets say you have a car "A" with a VIN
and prodcution date later than car "B", but due to the way Fiat produced the
cars, "B" actually has some changes on it that are "later model" items. The
VIN & prod. date could never indicate that this car has later stuff on it, but
by assigning a later "spare number" if you know the coding you can tell what
was on that car.
5) Color codes changed year to year and even within a year if the supplier (or
different supplier) came up with a slightly different batch of paint. Trying
to "match" paint by color code is better done by physically mixing new paint
to match an un-molested original sample hidden somewhere on your car. If want
the color code only to know what the name of your original paint was, then you
can usually check in Fiat sales literature for your year of car to see if the
code (usually 3 digits) and it's name is listed.

Happy New Yar to everyone!

Ed at Caribou
visit us on the Web at:
http://members.aol.com/CARIBOULH
now the largest Fiat parts supplier in the Western U.S.