Decoding a Capri VIN (Vehicle Identification Number)

  Australian-market Capris

The VIN is the 11-character designation that follows the 6-character ADR 43/01 manufacturer prefix (which for Ford Australia is 6FPAAA) on the Vehicle Identification Plate fixed to the horizontal return of the bulkhead below the RHS rear edge of the engine bonnet (hood), near the hinge assembly.

Sample VIN: UL 01 LR 83339 ch1: Product Source (for Capri, always U = Japan) ch2: Assembly Plant (for Capri, always L = Broadmeadows) ch3-4: Body type (Unclear, but the pattern appears to be 01 = Standard; 03 = Turbo; AU = XR2/Barchetta/Clubsprint) ch5-6: Year & month manufactured (eg. LR = 1990, Oct - see table below) ch7-11: Serial No. The VIN also doubles as the chassis number (stamped on top of the LHF suspension tower housing) and the original engine number (stamped on a flat surface on the forward side of the engine adjacent to the clutch housing).

To work out the build date of your Australian-market Capri, read down the first column in the table below to find the year according to the 5th character (J, K, L, M, N, P or R); then read across that row to find the month matching the 6th character.

Note: Sometimes the build date from the VIN differs from the "Built" date stamped as MM/YY on the Vehicle Identification Plate. If anyone knows why this is so, please let me know.
Also, on rare occasions a car has an aberrant VIN that doesn't fit the above pattern at all. (Original VIN, not a "police" VIN such as is created when the original cannot be clearly identified.) One possibility is that these are pre-production cars from 1988 or early 1989 (see "Production Statistics"). If your car has an original VIN that doesn't match the spec above, I'd like to hear about it.

  USA-market Capris

For cars exported to the USA, the VIN is of the pattern in the table below (courtesy of Rex N Miller).

VIN Decoder

(Sample VIN: 6MPCT0364P86001)

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Created 5 May 2003 : Last updated 18 July 2010.