Where does my FD really come from ? Canada ? USA ?
 

Hey,

I'm from France and bought my first FD last month and I have doubts about its origin.
According to the seller, it is a Canadian imported car. The thing is, according to the VIN of the car ( JM1FD3315P******* ), it should be from the USA. (Canadian ones having a JM1FD332* code)
Also, there's something weird concerning the first registration date, which is officially 03/1996. But, again, according to the VIN, it should have been a car produced in 1993 (the P letter in the VIN)... so, why has it been released 3 years after ?? Could be a USA market unsold car, sold in Canada later ?

About the car itself :
No cruise control / No leather Seats / No sunroof
No headlight washers / No rear Wiper / No Washer tank in the trunk
2 oil intercoolers
Interior:
Indications (sun visors, etc) are written both in English AND French (like Canadians)
Cluster Speedometer is in KM/H only (like Canadians)

So, now, I don't have any clue where does this car really come from...

If at sometime it was registered in North America there will be a CarFax report on it listing the ownership history. Check out this website, make sure you let us know if you figured out the history of your car. We love a good mystery.

Well, I found out this carfax website before,

The thing is I've already tried 2 other similar websites (cheaper though), and they gave me just a few informations, nothing very interesting.
Except, maybe for vinecoderz.com that gave me those informations :
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...446187b216.png

I just don't know if I can trust them, there is a report from 12/1995 but the car has a first registration date in 03/1996... so maybe the car dealership made those campaign recalls before selling the car ?
What about the 3rd line about Tires in LA ? can this be a reliable information ?

Anyway, I'm not ready to pay 38€ ($44) to carfax for nothing new :) Unless I could be sure they have real informations before paying...

Zoom-Zoom > thanks for letting me know, indeed, I don't have the Maple leaf stickers :) and my speedo is Km/H only up to 280.
So, I guess it may be a USA model first, which was modified after.

I read the maple leaf comment and thought it was a joke at first.

What year did they stop selling FD's in Canada? I have a USA 1995 model year, and they didn't sell very many.

So the speedo is kilometers per hour and is the odometer in kilometers as well? Unless someone swapped in a different instrument cluster it doesn't sound US to me. Everything is in miles on US cluster, including odometer, with small kilometers/hour markings on the speedometer below the miles/hour numbers.

We have customers with Canadian cars, they all have KPH speedo, daytime driving lights and headlight sprayers.

Post the vin here, I will check the report for you

Those 2 entries are above are for recalls - the first is the coolant recall where they change the radiator cap and put in the fan recall stuff, and the second is the fuel hose recall where they replace/ugprade the fuel lines.

Quite possible the first was done before sale, on these recalls they have any unsold cars on the lot taken care of.

Dale

tomatoto,

Based upon the partial VIN you provided, the 10th character is "P" which means that it was a 1993 model year VIN. If the 10th character is an "R" then that is a 1994 model year. If the 10th character is an "S" then it is a 1995 model year car. The partial information you provided looks like that VIN was first imported into the US and then migrated into Canada then to you in France. Changing the speedo to read KPH and odometer to km is easy - Dale has a thread that talks about KPH->MPH speedometer conversions. Thank you, Dale!

I'm sure that Mkiv98 will give you a lot more information when you provide the full VIN.

There are threads that pertain to VIN decoders and VIN calculators. Check them out when you have some time to kill.

Congratulations on your FD and may it bring you 1,000 smiles/min!

Cheers,
George

Thanks to you guys for helping me out !
I've provided the VIN to mkIV98 in private, hopefully the report will tell us more...

I've already tried a couple VIN decoders / calculators , but I'll check soon if there are more out here
here's the report of Vin Decoder :
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...fc0fc254da.jpg


Here's a pic of the car
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...f9788db5f0.jpg


and here's my acutal speedo, that definitely has been changed over time :

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...c914d7cd58.jpg
arghx >> So yes, both the speedo and Odo are in KM only.

I see that your oil pressure gauge is measured in lb/in^2 (pounds per square inch). If the car was imported to a country outside of the US/UK Market then it would measure in kg/cm^2 (kilograms per square centimeter). Much like changing the speedometer from MPH to KPH, the oil pressure gauge can be swapped to a metric gauge.

BTW, do you have proper oil pressure? The photo indicates the car was running with 0 oil pressure. The OEM Oil sender frequently fails and is often inaccurate.

I also see that your car has a side marker light on the front fender. Does your car have the DRL and headlight sprayer? Does your car have the Canadian Maple Leaf sticker on the door jam?

It would be interesting to learn your car's history. Keep us posted!

Cheers,
George

that sticker is an orderable part...

Indeed, this gauge failed on me recently :) I'll see if I order a new one or if I go with a real sender and additional gauge.

No, it doesn't have the headlight sprayer nor the daylight running lamp.

That's exactly the point of this topic :)


The autocheck report from mkiv98 (thanks a lot!) didn't learn us a lot, except this record from 1992 (wow) :
Since the report does not mention this car was originally sold on the US market nor sold for export in any other country, we believe that it was never sold in the US.
So, I guess it should have been exported to Canada after a couple years being unsold in the US.

So, if anyone around here is using "carproof" (a Canadian website similar to carfax), I'd be glad if he could check my VIN :)
Oh, well... I'm trying to reach this carproof website, but it's redirecting to carfax... so, I guess they're out of service now :(
So, if anyone has the opportunity to check on carfax (for free) for me, I'd be very glad to :)

I also tried this official Canadian VIN verifying service : VIN Verify
but it tells me that the VIN has NOT been identified as a vehicle listed in their records...

Looks like it will be tricky to learn more about this car's history...

shoot me a PM with the last 6 of the vin, and i can see if its in Mazda's US database

It looks to me that carproof is still operating independent of carfax, perhaps some canadian members can chime in

may be ! on my end, when I go to https://www.carproof.com on my browser, it's redirecting to www.carfax.eu ... Maybe I should ask on the Canadian section of the forum.
Anyway,
Thanks j9fd3s, for this great information about my car :
It is a USA market R1, in PZ black, built new in 1992, and sold new the same year in Jacksonville, Florida.
So now, I know where she was born :) Such a good starting point for tracking this car's history !
I also have the original engine's number, so I'll check soon if it's still the same under the hood.

tomatoto,

Thanks for sharing the update! I'm glad to see that j9fd3s was able to help you.

Cheers,
George

I'm so glad too :)
Nevertheless, I'll keep on tracking more infos, I would like to know where it went from Jacksonville, if she really been in Canada or not, when it arrived in EU, etc... gathering any pieces of her history :)

Yes, I think the same.
And yes, very good idea. I'll send this request ! (edit : Ive just send it!)
And I'll keep you posted here.

No MPH
 

That speedo does not have the mph in smaller size like other CDNDM. Could it be a speedo from a European (French) model? I think Brian Long reports that there were some new cars being sold in the US in 1996; Also that RX7 continued to be exported to the UK in limited amounts in 1996. But those would have ben be RHD, I suppose.

Mazda extended the 1995 model production all the way until December of 1995, so there were FD's that didn't even arrive in the US until 1996.

Alright,
I've stumbled upon some old papers, and found out that the car was registered in Italy before France... I even got the name of the Italian owner, but I can't find him anywhere on google, facebook, etc... too bad.
So, this car seems to have travelled a lot >> USA > Canada (?) > ?? > Italy > France

So I've contacted Mazda USA & Mazda Canada, and more recently Mazda Italy & Mazda France...
Hopefully one of them will tell me some relevant informations about my car... or not :)
For the moment, only Mazda CANada replied and told me that they don't have any informations and that I should contact Mazda USA. So I'm still waiting for them to reply.


Yes, I think so !

Just a small update,
Mazda USA, Mazda France and Mazda Italy (and Canada) replied but, unfortunately, they couldn't give me any relevant information (well, any information at all, except that it's not a European chassis number, ahah ^^)
anyway, I'll keep on trying to gather any other informations and be posting here what I find :)

Alright,
I've figured out some other things that confirm the US origin of the car :
I need to press the clutch pedal down in order to start the engine. (European models don't require that, and I don't know for the Canadians)
I've got the overheat button/light in the center console.
that one : https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...51f66a1648.jpg

That being said, I've got also the security button/light too, but I also have the "check engine lights " on my cluster as well. I don't know if the US cars have them or not. Anyway, my cluster had been probably changed since the speedo is in KM/h only.



also, I noticed the car has some small speaker (tweeter?) on the windows panels (both sides), and I doubt this is something all FDs have, isn'it ?
I've no idea if those came with the Bose pack, or whatsoever... I don't have any other bose equipment in the trunk anyway, plus mine should be a R1.
those one : https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...cbdbc4bce5.png


Otherwise, I didn't advance in my History tracking...
I've been able to talk with the garage in Jacksonville who sold this FD in 92, but they couldn't provide any informations about the vehicle.
I tried to reach the (now closed) society which imported the car to Europe, without success...
And trying to find the previous owner in Italy, but no success at all...

And I'm still refrain from trying carfax, too expensive for only 4 informations that I probably already know...
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...61ee81f9ac.png


Seems like I'm currently at a dead end.

Those are just aftermarket tweeters.

Vince

Aftermarket tweeters... alright !

No progress about my FD's history, but working in my garage today I noticed that 99 sticker in the windshield
if it's genuine, it may help me track the history of the car, if only I can figure out where it comes from.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...27dbfe3b9a.png

Ok, small sticker, big improvement.
I've been able to find out where this sticker come from, thanks to a collector's database. ( Switzerland 1999 - Motorway and Parking vignettes )
So, it's a Swiss Motorway Vignette, from 1999 (obviously ^^). This has to be stickied on the windshield in order to use their Motorway, even for foreigners.
If it's genuine, and I guess it must be since it costed 40 Swiss Francs at the time, it's a huge improvement in the car's History. Because it means the car was in Europe for such a long time. Probably in North Italy from 99. (North Italy is pretty close to Switzerland so people used to travel through Switzerland have this sticker)