New feature here at Forever Pontiac! We have put together a quick little VIN decoder tool for Pontiacs 1960-2010. All you need to do is type in your VIN and it will tell you facts about your vehicle. Right now, it is a little on the simple side with information about the build place, engine, transmission, etc... Eventually, we should be adding in more data as we obtain it. 

If you want to test out your Pontiac's VIN, you can go to: https://foreverpontiac.com/pontiac-vin-decoder/

Maybe I have the VIN wrong.  But the decoder thinks I have a 1965 Pontiac Star Chief built in Detroit.  My build sheet and Fisher Body plate says Kansas City and its a 70 Catalina.

Rick

4 minutes ago, B52bombardier1 said:

Maybe I have the VIN wrong.  But the decoder thinks I have a 1965 Pontiac Star Chief built in Detroit.  My build sheet and Fisher Body plate says Kansas City and its a 70 Catalina.

Rick

Do you mind messaging me your VIN? Fully could be a bug. Had limited test data, unfortunately 

um, my 68 lemans vin shows up as a 63 !

 

i will pm you my vin 

Edited May 18, 20251 yr by 64 kiwi boni

Yes sir, mine shows to be a 66' Unknown Pontiac Model, with a 5.7L/350, made in Arizpe, Mexico. With that said, I haven't had any luck finding a decoder that would do my 63's 9-digit number.

3 minutes ago, Wrongway said:

Yes sir, mine shows to be a 66' Unknown Pontiac Model, with a 5.7L/350, made in Arizpe, Mexico. With that said, I haven't had any luck finding a decoder that would do my 63's 9-digit number.

send Ringo a pm mate with your vin so he can use it as a test 

I can do that bro.

Sorry Ringo, Old Bean - your decoder says my car is a 2015 Prius with the Indy big block and chrome seat belts option.

No - apparently mine is a Michigan built 3.4 V6! Even funnier.

Man, these pre-1980 VINs are all over the place. Might as well be driving a spaceship  .

Thanks to all who sent me their VIN. Made some adjustments. I'm sure it's going to be fine tuning as far as it goes as there seems to be a lot of variances year to year and model to model.

I'll never forget the headaches I endured trying to get my 65 registered here in Australia. The VIN had to be manually entered by a transport branch supervisor in order to override the 17 digit modern system. At one point I thought I'd be pushing the car home and never be able to drive it. This was in addition to the Import Approval, proof of ownership and Safety Certificate after having poured tens of thousands into it. Good times.

On 5/18/2025 at 5:31 PM, Fitzy said:

I'll never forget the headaches I endured trying to get my 65 registered here in Australia. The VIN had to be manually entered by a transport branch supervisor in order to override the 17 digit modern system. At one point I thought I'd be pushing the car home and never be able to drive it. This was in addition to the Import Approval, proof of ownership and Safety Certificate after having poured tens of thousands into it. Good times.

Glad you got it sorted out, I had about the same experience registering my wife's 1960 Jaguar Mark 2, It had been off the road and not registered for over 30 years, When I took the sellers Michigan Title to our version of the DMV they did not recognize the VIN on the title. I had to tow it to the State Police Station and have them inspect the car. It seems when they originally titled the car someone used the engine number not the chassis number for the VIN. It was a pain to straighten out, But the State police officers thought it was funny, the woman at the DMV did not. But it did get straightened out with more paperwork than I care to remember.

As for the decoder I can not imagine the amount of work involved in getting a decoder to work on the at least 3 different formats used from 1960 to 2010!

Edited August 22, 2025Aug 22 by cammerjeff