VIN Decoding
Using the Ford Fleet VIN Decoder, I’ve got some interesting factoids about my new Ford Escape Hybrid:
Assembly Plant:
- KANSAS CITY plant in CLAYCOMO, MO (pollution scorecard, for the curious. About what you’d expect from a major auto mfg. plant in the USA.)
Production Sequence Number: Almost 36,500 other 2006 Ford Escape Hybrids rolled off the line before mine! 
Per Bob’s comment below, I misinterpreted the sequence number. My FEH was around the 136,500th Ford Escape off the ‘06 production line, and who-knows-what-number HYBRID off Ford’s lines.
You can read my initial observations on the FEH after 24 hours of ownership. The hybrid_ford_escape Yahoo Group is a huge reason why I am already so knowledgeable about the FEH, although there is much more to learn yet!
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Day 32: (W)ow!
Bob said,
March 9, 2006 @ 2:29 pm
36,500 hybrids before yours? They haven’t even made that many between 05/06 combined. The serial number includes all Escapes. 6KA + 0 to 99,999 (A) + the rest, 6KA + 100,000 to 199,999 (B) + rest, 6KA + 200,000 to 299,999 (C) + rest and so on.
6KB44444 would be 144,444.
Shannon said,
March 9, 2006 @ 2:43 pm
Thanks for the point of clarification! That did sound like a bit high for the number of FEH’s produced in one year, particularly given mine was no doubt not the last one off the line!
However, I see from the entry for Ford Escape Hybrid on Wikipedia that “Ford built 17,000 Escape Hybrids in the second half of 2004, four times as many as the company had originally planned to build. Ford plans to produce 4,000 Mariner Hybrids and 20,000 Escape Hybrids for 2006.” So there are definitely a fair number of them being produced out of the total pool of Escapes.
Bob said,
March 10, 2006 @ 9:17 am
They did not build that many in 2004. Not even close. I heard from a good source the number was closer to 5000.
The ‘internet media’ is not something that should be relied on often. Wiki has a lot of incorrect info.
Shannon said,
March 10, 2006 @ 11:31 am
Bob,
There is no “Internet media”. If you see something incorrect or misleading on Wikipedia.org, you (like everyone else in the world) have the power to edit it, add attributions/sources, etc. When a page defiler comes along, those who have an interest in that topic/page quickly revert the edits. That’s the power of the “commons”. The Internet media is nothing more than the traditional media using the Net as another vehicle.
I’d be interested in reading whatever edits you feel are necessary to the Ford Escape Hybrid article on Wikipedia (linked in my original entry.)
- Shannon Moore