[Vinny1979]

But quite a few of those on SORN will be back on the road during the Summer. I have two of them!

mine too

[tompinney]

Done a bit more work to decode the VINs. Got a much better undertanding of the pre-92 VIN decoding schema now, having reverse engineered from the data I have.

I've still got a good few hundred cars I still haven't properly decoded the VINs for one reason or another, but here is the list as it current stands broken down by model.

Code: Select all

DecodedModel		TAXED	SORN	UNTAXED	UNKNOWN
214 Cabriolet		16	62	2	8
214i			170	487	64	269
214Si			39	115	14	27
216 Cabriolet		247	633	63	170
216 Coupe		124	406	33	68
216GTi			110	163	34	133
216GTi Twin Cam		0	6	0	0
216SLi			24	61	6	26
218 VVC Coupe		48	200	11	23
218SD			6	53	5	23
218SD Turbo		18	122	8	35
218SLD Turbo		1	1	0	0
220 Coupe		31	181	16	21
220 Coupe Turbo		60	263	18	11
220GSi Turbo		3	33	2	1
220GTi			14	62	6	5
220GTi Turbo		4	22	0	1
220Si			18	63	3	11
414Si			67	174	26	79
414SLi			4	37	1	5
416 Tourer		32	92	14	30
416GTi			3	3	0	0
416Si			186	384	72	181
418SD			0	11	1	0
418SD Turbo		38	174	17	75
418SLD			3	11	2	3
418SLD Turbo		5	50	1	13
420GSi Sport Turbo	3	23	3	0
420GSi Turbo		0	9	0	1
420Si			22	74	4	18

The above table doesn't currently make a distinction between 3/5dr 200 variants and likewise for saloon/tourer variants of the 400. The 216's also currently cover both the D-series and K-series and I still need to do a bit more research to make sure I've got the correct crossover point to make a determination between 420 GSi Turbos and Sport Turbos.

Watch this space for more updates.

[tompinney]

Very useful data Tom and it's nice to see you back on the forum!

Life has presented me with a little bit more time than I've had over the past few years. My house refurb is starting to draw to an end so I can play with the cars a bit more now, but thought playing with some 200/400 stats in the lockdown evenings would keep me busy until I'm allowed out again.

As a matter of interest do you have a data set that cross references VIN's to key numbers by any chance?

The reason that I ask is because the local MG/Rover independent dealer in Wickwar has a key making machine that uses blanks with a hinged handle [so OEM], but you need the four figure key number to use it.

I'm afraid I have no key data, this is purely data from the DVLA bulk data set that I'm basing this exercise on. I've got other sources of information which I can have a look at for you, but I'm not very hopeful I can tell you what the codes are.

[Mr Teddy Bear]

I note that there are only 6 216 Twin Cams left and all sorn as of last Winter.

John Anfield has a excellent 5 door that will be back on the road by now I own a Ocean Pacific Blue rough one 5 door. That means there are only 4 others in existence?

There is a Flame Red Twin Cam for sale at £10k in Swansea only 2200 [delivery?] miles never had a MOT with the correct fabric interior! perhaps he isn't mad?



Probably another white 5 door [ looks off white] duo tone L167 THC 85,000 miles . Advertised twice by two different sellers!

[961tat]

There are 2 near me one about to broken at my mates never see rust like it nothing left of the top of front window in white and red one up Cumbria that been off the road years but he's won't sell stuck under trees but looks very good lf that's any help there must be more than 4 out there .

[tompinney]

The 216GTi has been the bane of my life decoding these VINs because Rover seem to have chopped and changed their VIN decoding for that particular model and to compound that there are four different 1.6 engines types to add into the mix.

From what I can see in the data I have Rover explicity declared different class designations for the single cam and twin cam 216GTi's VINs in the first year or so of production, however after not very long they seem to have dropped the explicit declaration of the "Twin Cam" VIN class and all 216GTis were grouped together under a single designator in the VIN. The only way then to tell the twin cams from the single cams then is to check the engine designator in the VIN. So that's why there are apparently so few Twin cams, most of them are actually classifed in the 216GTi stats above. I can't say if its just fluke, but all the 216GTi Twin Cam cars I have listed above are 3 doors. I'm not particular clued up on the pre-92 models so I don't know if the explicitly declared twin cam VIN class was applied to any 5 doors or not.

[tompinney]

Just had a very quick look at the stats based on engine (ignoring specific models) and there are 132 taxed and 310 SORN examples of twin cam powered 200/400 remaining.

I'll be able to get a more meaningful brakedown as I progress with procressing the data and reverse engineering the VIN decoding for the earliest cars.

[Montegoman]

You should be able to differentiate between 3 and 5 door because the body code is different, N for 3dr, W for 5dr.

[tompinney]

That's what the decoding data would suggest but it not quite as simple as just looking at the body code in the VIN, you need to consider the engine code letter too because the class letters mean different things depending upon what engine letter you have so you need to handle all those permutations when processing the data. Its also not proving so simple with the data I have and the lack of VIN decoding data for the pre-92 cars in particular which I spent most of last weekend reverse engineering; I'm still not done with that either.

There are lots of VINs with letters that don't correspond to any of the known VIN body codes. In most cases its pretty obvious that VINs have been fat fingered by cross referencing with the model any given car is registed as on its V5, but I have to check each and every one as I tweak my parsing script that loads the data into the database to make sure I'm not compounding the DVLAs anamolaies by introducing my own mistakes into the data I'm producing stats on.

There are a good couple hundred VINs I still need to interpret, but the further a get into this the longer it takes. Early on each tweak to my parsing script would reduce the number of anomalous VINs by the order of hundreds or even thousands, but now I'm down to the last few hundred cars each iteration takes longer because I only end up fixing a few anomalies on each run now - the law of diminishing returns in action! Just to give you an idea of what its taking to tidy the DVLA bulk data up, I've written over 1000 lines of code and counting just to parse the data into a database, let alone the code for querying it and eventually presenting on my website.

[crepello]

Does this info from early 1991 help? From the example serial given, it seems this scheme dated from range introduction.
Unfortunately, the manual doesn't provide the code letter for each option available.

Code: Select all

From Rover Repair Manual AKM 6365 (2nd Ed 1991)
Engines covered: 1.4 8v Carb, 1.4 16v SPi, 1.6 SOHC, 1.6 DOHC

                             S A X XW Y W A B A D 001989
                             | | |  | | | | | | |    |
                             | | |  | | | | | | |    |
Geographic Area -------------| | |  | | | | | | |    |
Country -----------------------| |  | | | | | | |    |
Manufacturer --------------------|  | | | | | | |    |
                                    | | | | | | |    |
Marque/Model -----------------------| | | | | | |    |
Class --------------------------------| | | | | |    |
Body -----------------------------------| | | | |    |
Engine -----------------------------------| | | |    |
Transmission & Steering --------------------| | |    |
Model change ---------------------------------| |    |
Assembly Plant ---------------------------------|    |
                                                     |
Serial Number ---------------------------------------|
                             

My 214S (regd. March 1991): 3dr saloon, 1.4 K8 Carb, Manual Trans & Steering	SAX XW MND BAD