Vin number?

[Pvantuyl]

Anyone ever had a problem regestering or insuring there mercedes due to a "non conforming" Vin number? State farm said I have to prove that the vehicle is up to US standards. State patrol said set up an appointment and come see us???
Any one ever had this experience?

[jdc1244a]

You have an grey market car?

[Cyberbach]

I've purchased all 3 of my Benz from out of state and when I had to register them I had to take my cars to the county sheriff where they do a visual inspection of the VIN tag then run the numbers through their computers. It takes a couple minutes, charge me 10 bucks and send me to the county assessors and treasurer's office to pay for everything else. Never had any issues.

[W123madness]

This is slighty OT but when I put my VIN in the sites "Vin Decoder" it said my car was a 240D not a 280E. It's a German VIN but the sites supposed to take that into account.

[jdc1244a]

Here are the VINS for my 300 D. On top is the US market VIN, below is the VIN converted to European market for use on the Russian site VIN decoder.

WDBAB30A2Bxxxxxx

WDB1231301Bxxxxxx


If you car’s VIN starts ‘WDB123xxx…’ then it is originally a European market car imported to the US as such and converted by the importer to conform to US standards, known as ‘Federalizing.’ If that’s the case you may have a problem registering the car and other VIN decoders may not work correctly.

[AstroSilver]

jdc1244a - 10/8/2005 6:02 AM

You have an grey market car?

What's a grey market car?

The insurance difficulty I found with my car is on insuring her fully comprehensive.

It had been insured so for years - I went to the SAME insurance and told them to insure it in my name now, but they said they can't insure it fully comprehensive because the car is more than 10 years old!!!

I told them come on you've just re-insured this same car last week (previous owner was hesitant to sell and had just renewed insurance and licence) I told them it's exactly the same car you just got to switch the owner's name nothing else, the previous owner hadn't yet cancelled the same policy... but it was all in vain! [:(!]

Money-suckers!!! [:(!][:(!][:(!]

[jdc1244a]

AstroSilver - 10/8/2005 2:08 PM

What's a grey market car?

The insurance difficulty I found with my car is on insuring her fully comprehensive.

A grey market car is one built on a non-US assembly line as a European market car and sold in Europe, most likely Germany. Because they are more desirable and perform better then the US market cars, some are imported to the US by authorized importers who change the cars to meet US federal standards and regulations. They are not ‘white’ market because they were not built on a US market assembly line; they are not ‘black’ market because they are made legal once here – hence ‘grey’ market.

This is something you need not worry about in Malta. In the US, if the importer did a poor job or ‘Federalized’ the car to meet the requirements for a specific State, trying to registrar the car in another state – or register it altogether – can be problematic.


Your car can not be insured for comp and collision because it has no known market value and therefore no pay out can be made. In the US the rule of thumb is to carry basic insurance on a car over 7 years old – if totaled in an accident it would be cheaper to sell the wreck and buy a new car than the payments made to the insurance company over a given period of time.

An exception to this rule is if you are making payments on the car or if you invested a large amount of money, say $10,000 USD, in a restoration. Often in these cases classic or collectable car insurance can be purchased, but they have mileage and usage restrictions.

[Nutz 4 Benz]

So whats the trick to registering my 280E with no catalytic converter(IM and such)? Has a state of Washington assigned number on it,so can't I just get
an exemption on the emissions test?