Coach vs Chassis year model explained please

[Barney]

Could someone explain how the difference in year model between the chassis and coach is applied to
valuation, insurance, and titling. What's on the title? ( Prevost or converter or both?)
Are there two vin numbers? Which is correct to list when your selling a coach?

Thanks

[dale farley]

Barney,



The vin # is for the chassis and should tell you the year of Prevost manufacture. The converter will assign a serial # for the conversion. The converter serial # is normally not on the title. In most cases, the title will show the year the converter finished the conversion. Most of the time, that will be the year after the chassis was produced, but sometimes it is the same year, and in some cases there is more than a year's difference. The most common will be something like this: a 1998 chassis that shows a 1999 Maraton conversion title, so it is considered a 1999 Prevost conversion.

Most Prevost conversions are titled the year the conversion is completed. There are exceptions. I have seen buses advertised that the title was several years different than the chassis manufacture. In those cases, you need to get all the facts before purchasing. There are some situations where a bus was sold by Prevost as a passenger bus then someone had it converted several years later. In that case, some of the systems may be different than a bus that was sold by Prevost directly to a converter.

As a general rule, insurance and valuation are based on the year the conversion is titled. The advertised year will almost always be the year the bus was converted. Some titles show 1999 Prevost. Others show 1999 Country Coach. Some may show 1999 Prevost, Country Coach. They should all have the vin from the chassis regardless how the bus is described.

[jack14r]

Barney,The buyer should know how to read the Prevost serial # to determine the year of the shell,I have seen a 2003 shell that was titled as a 2007,anyone that values that coach will deduct around 200-300K.

[Dick in Wisconsin]

What's the secret to the VIN# on a Prevost? We were told that the digit immediately to the left of the alpha character in the middle of the VIN# indicates the last digit of the year the chassis was built. So of that number is "6" ... then the chassis could be a 1986 or 1996 or 2006 ... and the conversion probably was finished the following year.

Is that accurate?

[truxton]

It's the 8th number from the last digit. Count from right to left. Your correct on the, 3 being 2003, 5 being 2005 and so on.

Later
bv

[jbchevy3]

Barney,
All VIN #s that are 17 digits, the 10th digit from the left signifies the year model. 17 digits started in 1981 and remain today.

[Gil_J]

It makes no logical sense,but in most cases the coach will be titled as being built by the converter on the year they completed or first sold the coach using the Prevost VIN. What makes no sense is that the VIN identifies both the manufacturer as well as the model year. So, automated DMV computers should raise a red flag when the manufacturer is anything other than Prevost and should raise anoher red flag if he model year is entered as anything other than Prevost's model year.

[truxton]

You can count it forward or count it back but I guess I'm not as smart as I think. I just looked at a 2002 and 1997 for reference and both had letters in the 10th spot or 8th spot counting back. 17 digit Serial numbers.
Someone enlighten me please.

Later
bv

[jetart]

You can Google "VIN decoder" and a number of sites will help with this usually confusing process.
Dan

[gmcbuffalo]

How to read Model Year from the VIN?

"Model year" is encoded in the 10th position of the VIN. It should always be a letter for 1981-2000 vehicles, a number for 2001-2009 vehicles and a letter for 2010 and forward. Note that the year code can be the calendar year in which a vehicle is built, or a model or type year allocated by the manufacturer.

B->1981	C->1982	D->1983	E->1984	F->1985	G->1986	H->1987	J->1988
K->1989	L->1990	M->1991	N->1992	P->1993	R->1994	S->1995	T->1996
V->1997	W->1998	X->1999	Y->2000	1->2001	2->2002	3->2003	4->2004
5->2005	6->2006	7->2007	8->2008	9->2009	A->2010	B->2011	...

reference:
http://www.vinquery.com/faq.aspx