9TR

Well there is also JN1AZ34D93T100001 which is the first non side airbag model (there are separate VIN ranges for side airbag and non side airbag models). So in a way yes, but it's not correct for auto and manual, they appear in the same VIN ranges.

zakmartin

Was that for an international or right-hand drive model?

I'm pretty surprised at this piece of trivia to be honest with you. Nice find!

9TR

No, this is for USA (well technically, USA, Canada, Mexico as they share the same VIN ranges).

For each model year, USA VINs have both side airbag and non side bag VIN ranges, and then coupe and roadster have their own ranges. (From MY2004 since the roadster wasn't available in MY2003, coupe being Z34 for digit 4-6 and roadster being Z36)

So for MY2003 (which is a 3 in the model year code in VIN 10th digit), you have:
JN1AZ34D93T100001 [non side airbag coupe]
JN1AZ34E13T000001 [side airbag coupe]

In 2004 things get interesting because of the roadster (then there is 2 separate ranges again but I'm not quite sure why), then the MY2004.5 is introduced, and then finally the production moves to a new facility (11th dit changes from T to M) so there is a lot of ranges: (Note that 10th digit is now 4 for MY2004. You'll also notice that the 9th digit is the checksum digit which is a number calculated on the rest of the VIN

JN1AZ34D44T150001 [non side airbag coupe MY2004 Oppama]
JN1AZ34E74T050001 [side airbag coupe MY2004 Oppama]
JN1AZ36D04T100001 [non side airbag roadster MY2004 early Oppama]
JN1AZ36A74T000001 [side airbag roadster MY2004 early Oppama]
JN1AZ36DX4T102001 [non side airbag roadster MY2004 late Oppama]
JN1AZ36A64T002001 [side airbag roadster MY2004 late Oppama]

JN1AZ34DX4T160001 [non side airbag coupe MY2004.5 Oppama]
JN1AZ34E24T060001 [side airbag coupe MY2004.5 Oppama]
JN1AZ36D64T110001 [non side airbag roadster MY2004.5 Oppama]
JN1AZ36A24T010001 [side airbag roadster MY2004.5 Oppama]

JN1AZ34D44M100001 [non side airbag coupe MY2004.5 Tochigi]
JN1AZ34E04M150001 [side airbag coupe MY2004.5 Tochigi]
JN1AZ36D44M200001 [non side airbag roadster MY2004.5 Tochigi]
JN1AZ36A44M250001 [side airbag roadster MY2004.5 Tochigi]

A lot of the rest of the world don't use checksum VINs, so they have a different style to USA VINs.

European coupe VINs look like
JN1GAAZ33U0000351, JN1GAAZ33U0100001, JN1GAAZ33U0200001 etc for coupe VIN.

For roadster, the 4th digit changes from a G to a 2:
JN12AAZ33U0300001, JN12AAZ33U0350001 etc

When the VQ35HR is introduced, the 5th digit changes from A to B:
JN1GBAZ33U0310001, JN1GBAZ33U0320001 for coupe
JN12BAZ33U0360001, JN12BAZ33U0370001 for roadster.

Europe VINs are shared between both right hand drive (UK, Cyprus) and left hand drive (rest of europe) - there is no way to tell if a car is RHD or LHD from the VIN, only way is from the model code, with 5 digit being L (LHD) or R (RHD).

The only difference for Australia over Europe is the U changes from U (Europe) to A (Australia)
JN1GAAZ33A0000351, JN1GAAZ33A0010001, JN1GAAZ33A0100001 etc
Again they have the same changes for roadster (4th digit 2) and VQ35HR (5th digit B).

Japan is even more simple.

All of their coupe VIN start with Z33-###### and roadster HZ33-######. All of their VINs fit in that style no matter the options/production facility/engine etc.

Hope that made sense.

Vitamin_B12

so reading your explanation, the autotrader one is simply the first USA/Mexico/Canada one right?

cuz i remember unrelated scouring a long time ago the original first chassis is in Japan at Nissan's Zama warehouse / Heritage Museum. these are not my pics:

zakmartin

That would significantly drive down the value of the Z that's currently being advertised as the "first ever sold."

9TR

Well according to the data in Nissan FAST it could be argued that the USA car is number one going on the dates listed:

Z33-000001 0207 [July 2002] Japan
JN1AZ34E13T000001 0602 [June 2002] USA
JN1AZ34D93T100001 0602 [June 2002] USA
JN1GAAZ33A0000351 1202 [December 2002] Australia
JN1GAAZ33U0000351 0703 [July 2003] Europe

Of course I wasn't working on the production line to see the very first ever 350Z so I can't say 100% that the USA car above was it. Just going from data in Nissan FAST...

Vitamin_B12

in Japan they don't use VINs though; it is a chassis/frame number that doesn't even state the year of manufacture, so using a VIN decoder is kind of useless (the 380RS plaque has a production year on it to indicate 07 or 08 though)

according to FAQ pages of several car exporters in Japan, the date you see on papers is simply the first registration date with no indicated model year. when looking online to export a Z33, they start at 2002 (instead of 2003) because of this

they also state that the production date would typically a month or two before first registration for popular cars. with the US first VIN listed as July production, that ties in well with the official press link here stating North American sales began August 2002 http://nissannews.com/en-US/nissan/u...350z-press-kit

this is nothing definitive with regards to Japan, but the closest thing i could find is from an old Nissan Japan link for the Z33 http://history.nissan.co.jp/Z/Z33/0310/index.html

it says in the bottom right corner "July 2002 - October 2005" (i can't read Japanese so I don't know if the characters that follow represents production, sale, etc.)

i have also seen on car auctions some Z33's first registration listed as early 2002 (Jan, Feb) but obviously there is no way to tell for certain if it's just a typo or something

that being said, i think perhaps the only way to know for certain would be for a person to visit the museum and check the sticker in the door jamb of that first Z33 for the production month, although i don't even know if that exists on JDM cars?!