Title says it’s a 71 Vin says 72?

Discussion in 'Classic Buicks' started by Alexd121648, Feb 15, 2018.

  1. Alexd121648

    Alexd121648 New Member

    Hey guys! I’m new to the forum and I just bought a 71 Buick Skylark about a week ago. All of my paper work says the car is a 71, title and all but when I decoded my Vin it says it’s a 72?? Is this normal? The vin number is 4D37H2G117064 if anyone could shed some light on this for me I’d really appreciate it! Sorry if I posted this in the wrong section!
     
  2. BYoung

    BYoung Stage me

    Yep, VIN says it’s a 72. Someone messed up at the title office. Not sure what the “H” stands for. That digit is for engine code according to my book and “H” is not listed. Hopefully someone else will chime in.
     
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  3. Alexd121648

    Alexd121648 New Member

    Thank you so much for helping me out! That’s what I was afraid of, I wonder what kind of hoops I’m going to have to jump threw to fix this.
     
  4. Mike Trom

    Mike Trom Platinum Level Contributor

    H is for Flint assembly plant. G is the engine code I believe.
     
  5. Roberta

    Roberta Buick Berta

    Sorry, in '72 H is the engine code 350-2bbl and G is plant code which is Framingham, MA
    Also had a typo on title when I brought the '68 GS350 from NY to Michigan, you need to contact the DMV and tell them of the problem you just discovered, they may require a law enforcement officer to confirm but they should issue you a corrected title, Good Luck!
     
  6. Alexd121648

    Alexd121648 New Member

    Well I guess tomorrow I’m off to the notary to try and get this all sorted out, thank you so much guys you’ve all been extremely helpful!
     
  7. Mike Trom

    Mike Trom Platinum Level Contributor

    Doah!!!! I stand corrected :p Should have known since I just made a sticker for a V code car.
     
  8. buford27

    buford27 '57 Special

    I bet if you look at the body tag on the cowl, the build date is in the last part of 1971 and that the car was sold new for the first time in 1971 even though it is a 1972 model year. It was very common back in the day for a car to be titled based on the year it was sold new rather than the model year.
     
  9. StagedCat

    StagedCat Platinum Level Contributor

    Do the cowl tag and title match somewhat at all? or are they completely different?
    Somebody switched cowl tag, just saying........
     
  10. Smokey15

    Smokey15 So old that I use AARP bolts.

    Whenever, wherever, you buy any vehicle with a title, match it to the vin# on the vehicle. Mistakes and larceny have been caught many times.
     
  11. Brad Conley

    Brad Conley RIP Staff Member

    The cowl tag is a Fisher Body tag and really has nothing to do with the VIN. There are some numbers that will correspond, but it is not used to title a car.
     
  12. bignastyGS

    bignastyGS Maggot pilot

    I think they were referring to if the VIN tag shows it's a 71 and the cowl tag is a 72,then there may be some swapping done.Other than that,I would contact the DOT and get the title changed to the correct year.They can do that in Pa for sure.
     
  13. buford27

    buford27 '57 Special


    I think you misunderstood what I was saying. The model year ran from August to July. So for the 1972 model year the actual production ran from August 1971 to July 1972. The body tag would certainly indicate a 1972 model year car in the style number field, but I'm guessing the build date is around 10B, which is second week (B) of October (10) 1971. This would mean that there was plenty of time for the car to be sold new in 1971 even though it was a 1972 model year. It was common practice in the 1950's and earlier to title the car based on the year it was sold new and not the model year, so an early production car could have a title with a year that was different than the model year. Although not common in later years, I have seen this on one early 1976 Buick titled as a 1975 even though the VIN and body tag both indicated 1976, it did have a 1975 build date though. I've attached a couple of pictures of trim tags for 1972 model year cars built in October of 1971 so you can see what I'm talking about.

    1972 Buick Trim Tag 62.jpg 1972 Buick Trim Tag 63.jpg
     
  14. StagedCat

    StagedCat Platinum Level Contributor

    Yeah, I did misunderstand and if I actually thought about it I know better...Brad made it very clear
     
  15. John Codman

    John Codman Platinum Level Contributor

    Having had some (unpleasant) experience in the area of title problems, I would recommend that if the VIN on the title is correct, don't go looking for trouble; just leave it as it is. The title for my Model T says "automatic transmission" the VIN is correct and nobody cares about the rest of the information on the title.
     
  16. telriv

    telriv Founders Club Member

    And we ALL know a T NEVER came with an auto trans.
     
  17. ray morris

    ray morris Well-Known Member

    I had the same problem when I bought a car out of state 2 digits where wrong had to a law enforcement officer to get the information back to the correct people it needed to be at .
     

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