Thanks for the vote of encouragement Dilbert. I'm still working on getting it all figured out, and I'll be sure to update the post with whatever I can gather about it in the meantime. I've read several places that the LA plant was a bit more disorganized than the others, and they were more likely to experience quality control issues. One theory is simply a typo in the VIN sequence number... Anyone? Also, for anyone viewing the photo of the VIN, it appears to have been painted by the previous owner. In the thread he posted in the other forum you can see it pre-painted.