Hi, I know that it has been explained numerous times what the VIN means: SA, FB etc.

General Mazda Rx-7 VIN Number information is easy to find on the net, for example:

1979 - 80
USA:
SA22C500001
• SA2........ = model code RX-7 1979-80
• ---2....... = Engine Code (2=12A)
• ----C...... = Body Code (C=coupe)
• -----500001 = serial number

Model Year Production Date Serial Number
1979 3/78-6/79 500001-566640
1980 6/79-9/80 566641-631000

World:
SA22C00500001 (notice extra "00")
• SA2.......... = model code RX-7 1979-80
• ---2......... = Engine Code (2=12A)
• ----C........ = Body Code (C=coupe)
• -----00...... = Factory Code (00=Hiroshima)
• -------500001 = serial number

1981 - on
USA:
JM1FB3314B0600001
• JM1.............. = Manufacturer Mazda Passenger Car
• ---F............. = Car Line (F=RX-7)
• ----B............ = Generation (B='81-'85, C='86-'91, D='92-'99)
• -----3........... = Country Code (3=USA)
• ------3.......... = Body Style Code (3=coupe, 5=cabriolet)
• -------1......... = Engine (1=12A, 2=13B, 3=13B Turbo, B=13B-REW)
• --------4........ = Misc, ID Code / Check digit
• ---------B....... = Model Year Code (see list 1)
• ----------0...... = Factory Code (0=Hiroshima)
• -----------600001 = Serial Number

1981 7/80-5/81 500001-599999
1982 5/81-6/82 600001-699999
1983 7/82-10/83 700132-770000
1984 9/83-7/84 800001-849999
1985 7/84-5/85 850001-910000

OK, so far standard stuff.

Now my questions to you "VIN experts" out there:

1) I assume the "USA" VINs include cars sold in Canada - correct? But what about other (North) American countries, e.g. Mexico?

2) Are the VINs in a given series a complete row of consecutive numbers? This would then mean that approximately 131.000 MY 1979 and 1980 cars were sold in USA/CAN. Is that correct? Well, I have read that the first car sold was ..500025.

3) For MY 1981-85 the VINs are listed as e.g. 500001-599999, however, I am quite sure that this is only the reserved numbers. Does anyone know for any given MY what the acutal lowest and highest numbers are? In fact, in the SA / FB Owner's Registry on this site the highest MY85 is above 910000!

4) For "rest of the world" VINs are often indicated as SA22C00500001, however, that cannot be the case as for Japan the (early) JDM VINs are SA22C-1xxxxx. Does anyone know how many series of VINs were used in Japan, when they started (e.g. a given date or related to a model change like revised engine or facelift) and what the numbers in these series were, i.e. lowest and highest number.

5) Was the JDM VINs also used for export, e.g. to Australia?

6) For Japan and World, were a given series of VINs a complete row of consecutive numbers?

OK, hope someone can help me answer some of the above questions.

Best regards from Copenhagen, Bo

 

The monthly production start and end VINs are actually in the parts fiche catalogs, in the foreword. They are downloadable from Sgt Fox's site.

For example, my SA22C597799 was produced in January of 1980, which started with VIN 597273, and ended with 602249.

 

Another Note:
This Parts Book does NOT differentiate between a "1979" Model and a "1980" Model, and indeed there are NO "model" year parts differences/updates like the US RX7s which have a distinct Model Year "Break" and Serial Number "Break". In other words, these SA cars (and presumably European LHD as well) were all considered ONE MODEL in their respective markets for the 1979 thru May 1980 production! There is no such thing as a "1979" RX7 and a "1980" RX7 other than by production date.
AND-
there was only ONE Model. No "S" and "GS" trim. All were in "GS" + trim.
+= cassette deck, leather trim items, rear hatch bay light
BUT NO SUNROOF!

Stu Aull
80 GS
Alaska

 

sorry - my answers ABOVE are in CAPS within Bo's QUOTE...

Stu

 

From your UK/AUS parts catalog it appears that SN came in the range SA22C541117 to SA22C615692 which for the indicated months is identical to the US SN.

1) The conclusion (so far) thus has to be that SN for the "general export" was a single series excluding only JP.

2) In respect of the model number it appears that they came "one size fits a given market" this in contrast to US/CAN for which a total of 25 model numbers were used for MY 1979 and 1980.

For the MY 1981 and thus Series 2 the US/CAN VINs became FB whereas it appears that in the rest of the world the SA VINs continued.

Based on a German SA/FB/FC/FD registry (see http://www.rx-7-power.de/tinc?key=o6...rmname=Bestand) it appears that the SN series was now 65xxxx-.

However, around 1983 the VINs for the series 2 changed to FB and the SN series was now 66xxxx-, e.g. JMZFB131200666029.

From early 1983 the SN series appears to have changed to 70xxxx-, e.g. JMZFB131200701402. One guess is that the change to the new 70xxxx series corresponds to the introduction of the Series 3 models, however, JMZFB131200701402 was registered for the first time in April 1983. In contrast JMZFB 131200700076 was registered in July 1987!

Does anyone have non-US parts catalogs explaining the SN used for Series 2 and 3 cars?

Best regards, Bo

 

1. yes it seems this way. later cars, like the FD have different vin prefixes, like JM1FD331 for the US, JM!FD332 for canada, JMZ for europe, and FD3S for japan. with the FD they will use the same build sequence numbers, so we have JM1FD3319P0203810 and japan got FD3S-203810.

2. yes again, the different market might just be a different model code...

you can't go by registration dates, as the cars get registered when they are first sold new, and this just has no connection to the build date of the car. again, with the FD (they are all on the computer, and there are very few, which makes them easy to research), the last batch was built 12/95 and there were still plenty in dealer stock well into 1997, that's close to 2 years!

 

Indeed, I only mentioned the registration date to show that the European Series 2 cars got the FB VINs before the Series 3 cars were introduced.

Also in Germany some RX-7 were sold 2-3 years after having been imported.

 

Is it stated when your AUS/UK parts book was printed? Was it printed after 10/80? This because it appears the 1980 years production ends in May 1980, this in contrast to e.g. the US where 1980 production ends September 1980.

BR, Bo

 

so mine is a 78 huh lol

 

Bo - any data I have indicates SA/1980 production ended in MAY 1980. Makes sense since Mazda needed to start building up 1981 inventory for release in Sept 1980 of 1981 "new" car. This is (or was) pretty standard at the time.

UK/AUS parts book also indicates May 1980 as end date. Printed in JUNE - 1980...

Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska

 

According to the parts book (final version 1983) for US/CAN spec 1979-80 models production ended in 9/80. UK/AUS production may have ended earlier but I would assume that the printing date 6/80 is the reason for the "production end" in 5/80.

BR, Bo

 

Bo - so the Book your quoting from 1983 printing is for 78-80 _SA_ production parts?? Interesting if true! Post a photo of the Book! would love to see it....

Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska

 

A scanned copy I have of the 81-83 FB parts fiche, Published in April of 1992, shows FB production began in July of 1980, with VIN chassis number 500001
August started with 500076 (only 75 FB's produced in July of 80... but how many non-US 1981-model "SA's?")
September saw a start of 503736


My 1980 parts fiche shows a publication date of "May '83 - FINAL." It shows SA production ended in Sept of '80, as there was no SA chassis start number for October of 80.
Final start number s for SA's in 1980 per this document:
June 619393
July 624204 (June SA production 4811)
August 629533 (July SA production 5329)
September 629954 (August SA production of only 421 cars)





Seems clear from this that July through September of 1980, both SA's and FB's were in production

 

At http://rx7.foxed.ca you can dowload PDF parts catalogs for the US first, second and third series. The information above from DivinDriver gives the details in respect of FB start and SA end.

Taking a look at the SA / FB Owner's Registry on this site one can see that these late SA cars was in fact sold in the US. However, it can also be seen that the early FB cars were sold in the US.

As appears, there is a long overlap - very strange!

Either new and old cars were sold side by side or the SA cars were produced and sold during summer 1980 whereas the FB cars produced during summer 1980 were put in storage and sold form autumn 1980.

So, does anyone in this forum have information on when their late SA or early FB was sold?

BR, Bo

 

that is interesting! i wonder if they were trying to stockpile FB's, before they launched em? i looked at the FD's, but the SA outsold the FD like 4 to 1....

 

Strange way of stockpiling - still producing the old one! Normally a manufacturer would stop production to sell out old stock.

 

i want to say it was also possible that they phased the FB in at different times in different places. however since these are US parts books, that seems not to be the case?

also you have to remember that Mazda is actually a fairly small company, so while GM can crank out a million Chevy Citations a year, Mazda is probably at nearly full capacity (speculation!) making 50,000 Rx7's, and the GLC/626's

 

I figure they were still building SA's against existing orders, and had started building FB's for shipping starting with the September rollout. But I'm just guessing, there.

The REAL burning question, of course, is what was the VIN of the exactly-LAST US-bound SA??

& where is she now?

(

 

The highest VIN in the SA/FB registry is SA22C 628089 which is from the end of the July 1980 production. What the actual last VIN from September 1980 is is unknown to me.

And when import to the US of the SA models ended is also unknown to me.

BR, Bo

 

Sorry to dig up this old thread, but I came across when answering another post and thought I'd complete for the sake of completeness.

All Australian-delivered 1st gens retained the JDM SA22C chassis number prefix. There is no "FB" RX-7 in Australia. There is series 1, series 2 and series 3.

Numbers are as follows:

Series 1 (Feb 79- Oct 80, 79-80 model year): SA22C-541117 to SA22C-650000

Series 2 (Nov 80 - Sept 83, 81-83 model year): SA22C-650001 to SA22C-700000

Series 3 (Oct 83 to Dec 85, 84-85 model year): SA22C-700001 onwards

 

 

since this was started we have found the JDM 84-85 catalog, and their vins start with;

SA22C-300001. the series 4 FC is FC3S-100001, and S5 is FC3S-200001.

this would one to presume that the 79-80 JDM cars were actually SA22C-1XXXXXX, and the 81-83 were a 2xxxxx.

 

Thanks for clearing up my confusion. On my registration it says "1980" but when I input the VIN on the decoder it said it's a 1981. The only mystery remaining is how did the previous owner register his 1981 car...in 1980.

 

Where can one find this JDM 84-85 catalog?!!! Would be very useful for us RHD folks. Many of our components are shared with the JDM models.

Mazda dealers in Australia no longer have the parts catalogue for 1985 vehicles and earlier on site. 1986 and later are on their electronic parts catalogue and so are easy. For pre-1986, Mazda Australia HQ has the parts fiche still, but you need to work through a myriad of people just to find out the right part number to check.

 

Try the Japanese "Buyee" auctions. RX7 JDM catalogues pop up regularly... search under "SA22c"

Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska