Hi

New member to this forum

Have a '05 TSX with last two digits of VIN being 13. Seems unlucky (haha) but means that it is the 13th vehicle of the assembly line.

Any thoughts on whether earlier vehicles of assembly line have advantages/disadvantages?
thanks
m

 

People who buy a first-year model vehicle will want low VIN numbers to show others how they were one of the first people to buy the vehicle (and perhaps paid MSRP for it). For example, when the S2k came out, the honda forums I frequented had people putting their number in their signature. Being that your car is an 05, this situation doesn't pertain to you.

I think having a low number would be more of a disadvantage for you. When issues are discovered, they are fixed in vehicles that are produced afterward. That's not to say that early production vehicles are bad. It just means that while they intended to make a perfect vehicle, something unforeseen came about.

I can't really think of an advantage. Perhaps if the factory was new, only brand new equipment touched your vehicle? (e.g., new robots, tools, etc.) But I would think that if something ever broke down or became worn out, the manufacturer would maintain their equipment and replace them.

Maybe another advantage would be that the manufacturer will discover that they added something that they didn't mean to give the car. In that case, the early production vehicles can potentially have something that succeeding cars don't have. The chance of that is pretty low, though. Or, the manufacter might not have all of the components available, so then they'll borrow components from a different line up (sort of like how the 06-08 can be "hacked" to use a backup camera...although in that case, it's because the manufacturer saves money by reusing components instead of researching and developing separate systems).