Build date proof › Volkswagen
How to prove a Volkswagen's build date
The best-designed document on this list. Field 10 is the date final assembly was completed, field 11 the start of transfer from the factory, field 12 the date of delivery - the whole build-versus-despatch problem, printed on one page.
Routes, best first
Volkswagen Certificate (Art. ZER DAB 001)
Build date and despatch dateThe best-designed document on this list. Field 10 is the date final assembly was completed, field 11 the start of transfer from the factory, field 12 the date of delivery - the whole build-versus-despatch problem, printed on one page.
- issuer
- Volkswagen Classic Parts
- cost
- EUR 99.95 including tax, free tracked shipping. Data Sheet alone EUR 59.95; both EUR 129.95.
- time
- 5-8 weeks
- you supply
- The VIN, the model name, optionally the engine number, a language choice of German or English, and an owner declaration.
States when the car was built and, separately, when it left the factory. The best kind of document there is.
Limits and gaps
Volkswagen states that not all listed information is archived or decryptable in individual cases.
If the original engine is still fitted, Volkswagen will confirm the factory-fitted engine number at no extra cost. Older guides point at the Stiftung AutoMuseum in Wolfsburg; the live commercial product is Volkswagen Classic Parts.
Checked against the issuer's own page issuer page · full detail
The manufacturer's own date-of-manufacture label
Build dateThe single best evidence there is, and it is free. Look for it before you pay anyone anything.
- issuer
- The original manufacturer, at the factory
- cost
- Free
- time
- Immediate
- you supply
- Nothing but a torch and a phone camera.
States when the car was built. This is the date every import rule is measured from.
Limits and gaps
A JDM-market car normally has no date-bearing label at all. Its caution plate carries model code, chassis number, engine model and paint and trim codes - and no date.
NHTSA puts this first: the 25-year period runs from the date of manufacture, and the agency looks for that date on a label permanently affixed to the vehicle by its original manufacturer. Everything else on this site exists because that label is missing. Photograph the driver's door aperture, the passenger door aperture, the engine bay bulkhead and the centre pillars before you conclude there isn't one.
Checked against the issuer's own page issuer page · full detail
Certificate of Conformity (CoC)
No date of manufactureProves nothing about age, and is actively misleading: a CoC issued today for a 1997 car is dated today.
- issuer
- The manufacturer
- cost
- Typically EUR 100-250 from the manufacturer
- time
- Weeks
- you supply
- The VIN.
Carries no date of manufacture. Useful for other things; useless for proving a car's age.
Limits and gaps
The CoC carries the VIN, type approval, dimensions, masses, engine, emissions, tyres, brakes and colour. The only date on it is its own date of issue.
US shipping guidance sometimes lists a certificate of conformity including the production date as acceptable. Read that clause carefully - the words doing the work are 'including the production date'. A bare CoC has no production date on it.
Checked against the issuer's own page issuer page · full detail
EU registration certificate (V5C, carte grise, Zulassungsbescheinigung, libretto)
No date of manufactureStates first registration, not manufacture. First registration is normally later than the build - sometimes by more than a year. That gap is the whole problem.
- issuer
- The national registration authority
- cost
- -
- time
- -
- you supply
- -
Carries no date of manufacture. Useful for other things; useless for proving a car's age.
Limits and gaps
Council Directive 1999/37/EC, Annex I, defines the harmonised codes. (B) is the date of first registration and (I) the date of the current registration. There is no harmonised code for date of manufacture anywhere in the annex.
Individual member states may add national fields the directive does not harmonise, so check your own document. But no EU-wide manufacture-date field exists.
Checked against the issuer's own page issuer page · full detail
Volkswagen vehicles in the catalogue
The Build Date Proof Pack
This page tells you which document to order. The pack gets it ordered — and tells you what to do when the answer is that no document exists.
- A ready-to-send request for every archive, in the language it wants
- Exactly which numbers to photograph, and where they are on the car
- What to ask the seller for before you pay the deposit
- The fallback ladder when the manufacturer has no records
- What US, Canadian and Australian officials each accept as proof