1975 Door DOT/VIN Sticker - Was CA different? Options

[DaveB]

The DOT sticker I have on my door doesn't look like what I see on other 1975 914's. The PPS said my car was Equipped for California. This is what the current sticker looks like:



Was this done just for California?

Thanks,

DaveB

[wonkipop]

@JeffBowlsby

thanks for that answer on stamped metal manuf. plate jeff.

question prompted by karmann built vw beetles i looked at after @MCShack brought up the strange k numbers of some 75 MY 914s.

i noticed the stamped metal manuf plate disappeared off beetles.
it was in a highly visible position in the front trunk.
disappeared for 76 MY beetles.
thought at first these were cars that lost them during restoration.
but every beetle sales documentation i came across did not have them.

i looked at some standard beetles made at wolfsburg.
the plate disappeared on those too.

the following thoughts would only apply to cars bound for the USA market.

VW dropped the old style metal manufacturers plate during or at the end of the 75MY across the range. it introduced a new style plate with the water cooled cars coming in.

i believe what happened is that VW stopped putting two similar plates/labels on american market cars at the end of 75MY.

instead those cars got the Vin sticker label only.
it had the legal status in the USA anyway, the other old style metal plate was redundant.

all the way up to the end of the 75 MY the metal plate had stamped on it
MADE IN GERMANY. the vin label lacked country of origin during 70-74/5 MY.

the reason they redesign the layout of the vin label to give themselves space at the top is to include country of origin. since they are going to get rid of the manuf plate.

again, this is only USA cars.
I believe other VW models, including the ROW 76 914 would have retained the manuf plate. i'm guessing the plate went over to a new design.
i'm further guessing the new designed of the plate was the same or similar to what i have seen on golf mark 1's in the UK.
but i have never seen a 76 ROW 914.
i don't fully understand the whys of that - but i believe its possible that just like the USA adopted the Vin Label dictated by law in 69, the european countries (EU market) adopted their own standardised Vin system in around 76 and the old manuf plate was not up to the standard. ROW cars up to that time only have the manuf plate.

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early golf manufacturer (or is it euro vin?) plate.
this might be a repro but they are something close to this.
a 76 ROW 914 probably had something resembling this and likely in the front trunk?





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MADE IN GERMANY.

this is how it goes with the VW manuf plate or later vin labels across german built range.

up to end of 1964MY - MADE IN WESTERN GERMANY



from 65MY to end of 75 MY (approx) - MADE IN GERMANY



after this point old manuf plate ceases.

USA Vin Labels - GERMANY. (only name of country, drop the term "made in").
from late in 75MY until end of production of 914s.
courtesy of DaveP's run of 914 Vin Labels posted previously.



by 79MY - on german built VW range it becomes - WEST GERMANY.
not sure when the change in name happens at what model year.
but by 79 it has happened.




________

the rare vin label.
as davep has shown us, there is a rare label.
looks like the one with germany on it at the top line but does not have the name of country in yet.

its either a mistake label. and it could be.

or.

its a registration of a short moment in time where there is hesitation about what should go there. what is the name of the country?
the discussions were happening around this time in (West) Germany.
so at first the labels get nothing. (don't need to, still have manuf plate in frunk).
then they settle on GERMANY as they have been using it since 1965 (though its offensive to the East Germans and had led to the blow up in relations in 1968/9). and then shortly after that maybe a year, two years later, it goes to WEST GERMANY (the name that was finally acceptable to both East and West Germany.

the davep collection is fantastic.
that one sticker that only lasts a little while with the space ready for the name.
there will be i have no doubts plenty of other models across the VW range that recieved that label for a short time during the 75MY.

and then Germany appears a little forlornly for a couple of years.
because something has to go there.
and then you get WEST GERMANY.

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all the badges and plates on 914s are a great little record of history.
the old karmann plate looking like it was unchanged since some time in the 50s.
WESTERN GERMANY.
the manuf plate which was provocative and is a response to the berlin wall and the high point of the cold war.
GERMANY.
then usa vin labels which are kind of coy and have nothing - until they have to.

if the 914s had lasted a few more years they would have worn WEST GERMANY on the vin label.
did not quite make it to that point in time.

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i think thats the reason the vin labels get redesigned.
nothing to do with porsche vw company internal relations over a sub contracted car agreement.