You got it right near the end of your first paragraph - the last 7 characters is what is used. The first of that group (position 11) is the manufacturing facility. The remaining 6 is the serial number issued by that plant and it is unique to that plant/car combination. So the different sites and BMW can lookup based upon just that little bit of information.
In example, lets say your last seven are KC123456, K = Munich then S/N C123456. Now there could be an AC123456 also built in Munich, but a different line. Then maybe an LC123456 from South Carolina, but there would never be another KC123456.
If the last six were simply numeric, there would be 1 million vehicles from that individual facility. Now you add a letter in there somewhere and the number of combinations grows exponentially for a single manufacturing facility. In the grand scheme of things this works out very well. __________________
01 740iS Cosmos Black
97 318ti Boston Green
99 318ti Titanium Silver
13 X5 3.5XDrive Cosmos Black
97 318ti Alpine White (gone but not forgotten)
88 325iC Schwartz Black (sold)
97 740iL Schwartz Black (sold)
84 633csi Schwartz Black (sold)
96 318ti Alaska Blue (sold)
08 X5 4.8i Titanium Silver (sold)
Last edited by 740isport; 01-17-2017 at 05:31 PM. | 
Last 6 digits of the VIN - what are they? 
Linear Mode
