Your Cabriolet/Rabbit's Build Date

[kamzcab86]

Want to know your car's build date without ponying up $70 for a birth certificate, or calling VWoA?

Locate the build month and year on the black VIN plate on the driver's door jamb. In my car's case it is 11/85.

Locate the PKN code on your car's build sheet sticker in the trunk:


My car's code is 45-4-8063.

^That code yields:
45th week, 4th day of the week in 1985. That translates to: Thursday, November 7, 1985; my car was the 63rd car to roll off the production line at the Karmann plant on that day. That date, believe it or not, corresponds to the date printed on my car's birth certificate.

Complete instructions here: http://www.cabby-info.com/Files/Misc/BuildDate.pdf .

Credit to Brickwerks over on TheSamba for the PKN info.

Edit: If you do not have the build sheet sticker in the trunk, pop your hood and locate the PKN plate riveted to the slam panel (aka radiator support):


It provides the same code.

[Briano1234]

cool

[Calimus]

Cool indeed.

[mobycat]

Interesting. Tuesday, August 26, 1980. My VIN is relatively low - 00804. The PKN shows it was the 520th off the line that day. Seems high... did they really get 500+ cars off the line per day in Osnabrück? That would make me think the 1981 model year production started on Monday, August 25th, 1980.

ETA - or more believable (to me anyway) would be that it was the 520th off the line in Wolfsburg before being shipped to Osnabrück for modification by Karmann as a Convertible.

[Briano1234]

The cars were assembled from the ground up at the Karmann plant.
and it isn't had to believe that they produced cars in that number.

I had a 1981 Rabbit Diesel bought off the showroom floor in 1980 (October).

[mobycat]

Interesting. I didn't realize that. I was always under the impression initial assembly was at Wolfsburg.

What all was built at the Karmann plant? The convertible, of course. I'm guessing the Scirocco, too. Were any of the Vanagons? I guess I never thought of it as a full-bore plant.

[Briano1234]

Any thing labeled Karmann as in Ghia, I think the Camper Vans as well.