We get a lot of inquiries from people on how to get the manufacturer date of their VW, mainly for tax exemption reasons but sometimes just to have proof that their car is what they say it is.
We always direct them to the Volkswagen Stiftung AutoMuseum website where they can fill in their details, pay 35 EURO and eventually get a piece of paper back telling them all about their car.
The other week I got thinking, after directing someone to the AutoMuseum yet again, that I should really do this myself. If anything I would be able to report back to you on how easy or hard the process was and I always fancied having the official document telling me about how my car started life.
So, I went to the website, filled in my details, paid 35 EURO and got an email from VW telling me that they've received my money and they listed the details I'd entered earlier for me to check over. All was grand. Nice and simple!
About 6 weeks later I finally got a certificate through the door. To my surprise it stated my car was a 1962! This didn't add up as the car had a lot of '61 traits, not to mention the chassis number indicating it was an April 1961 car. (You can check this on various websites like thesamba.com)
So I quickly got in touch with the AutoMuseum via email and gave them a few facts about the car and asked them to double check.
A further 3 weeks passed with no reply. Then one day I got home from work to find a new certificate on the table. This one stated the car was in fact a 1961. Phew! Along with it came a letter explaining that the car had been listed as a 1962 in their records, however, after looking into the chassis number the vehicle was produced in 1961.
Now I've actually gone through this process I can still happily refer people to the AutoMuseum service, as it was all really straightforward and easy to do.
But considering I had to do a little homework in order to get them to check the year of the car again, the 35 EURO was a little pricey. I should hope this hiccup was a one-off though, otherwise there could be a lot of incorrectly dated VWs out there...
The best part of the certificate are the other details indicating the correct colour the car left the factory in, what interior it had, that it was a genuine factory fitted sunroof model and even the colour codes for the wheels.
If you want to get a birth certificate for your car, simply follow the link below and fill in your details. You will need your chassis number handy.
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