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I received my Marti Report. Does my serial number indicated the order or sequence in which the cars were built?

It is a common misconception that the serial number represents the order the vehicles were built on the assembly line. This is not true at all. The serial number represents the sequence in which the orders were generated. At Ford, orders are received by the General Office. They are responsible for the creation of serial numbers. As orders are received from all the different DSOs and internally from Ford, the serial numbers are assigned, starting with 100001 for the first Ford product at a particular assembly plant (in various years, Mercury started with either 500001 or 600001 while Lincoln used 700001 or 800001 or 600001).

Once the General Office receives an order and assigns a serial number, the order is forwarded to the assembly plant. However, the assembly plant uses criterion to determine what sequence to produce the orders. Amongst those criterion are:

      • Is this a special car?
      • Is it a retail or stock or basic order? (Retail has highest priority)
      • Are the options required in stock at the assembly plant?
      • Is there a welding bay available for the body style?

    These criterion, and others, mean the cars are not built in the sequence the orders are received. As an example, for the 1967 model year, over 550 Mustangs were built before 7F02S100001 was produced. In 1968, at the Metuchen assembly plant, the following is a series of Mustangs produced right after one another on May 23, 1968, which corresponds to 23E:

      • 8T01T207469 23E
      • 8T03C207384 28E
      • 8T02T204884 24E
      • 8T01T208309 24E
      • 8T01T209471 04F
      • 8T01C207524 23E
      • 8T03J207534 23E
      • 8T01T208979 04F
      • 8T01J207473 23E
      • 8T03C206401 22E

    Note the wide range of the serial numbers. Also note that there is no pattern to body style sequence. The numbers and letter after each serial number is the scheduled day of production that is listed on the door data plate. Note how sometimes the vehicle is built on the day of scheduling, but is just as likely built ahead of or behind schedule.


Answer provided by
Mr. Data
Last updated March 30, 2009