Urgent, need all vin number location on NB 98-05, please

[Libanass]

Hello

You don't have to read all this, you can skip to the question at the end..
As some here know that I'm now in Lebanon and I've been looking for an NB/NBC lately.
I've found a very nice New beetle GLX from 2001, 5 manual speed and 1.8T, but as soon as I purchased the carfax of the vehicule, it seems that the vehicule is still in the USA, but I was just test driving it yesterday, here, in Lebanon

Now, I am aware of how many car theft and vin cloning exported cars there is..especially to Lebanon! and how they cut the car in half, to ship it out then reassemble it (sometimes, poorly very dangerous!) as soon as it gets to it arrives where it is sent, then clone it to a similar Vin.. I know, horrible story
But, the seller (private) is telling me that he shipped the car himself in 2008, and he's very confident about his purchase.. now he could also not be telling the whole truth
But the carfax also show something weird, which is not any history record between 86 500 miles to 153 000 miles, and the car is indicated to be repainted in blue in 2010, as the car I'm looking for is already blue. This non-adequate carfax is enough to make me hesitate, and think that there is a possibility that the car that is still in the US is the one that was stolen or cloned to avoid a salvaged history

So my question is:

I need to know every single vin location on all the first generation new beetles, so to make sure that this is not the cloned one.

Thanks a lot for your time
Elie

[TDI_bubble]

PM me the vin in question and I will run a 'better' than carfax report for you. It's the one dealers use, not sure it will be usable for vins outside the US, but I can give it a try.

[MyOtherRidesAVette]

If the Seller exported it from the US. themself, that should be easy enough. There should be all kinds of paper trail, i.e. purchase documents from the US, export/import documents, shipping documents, duty fee receipts, etc. You don't just drive the car down to the port here in the US, load it on a boat, and pick it up and drive off when it arrives there. And this transaction would not particularly show up on a carfax. Why would it? I'm sure registration agencies, taxing authorities, or what not do not report European information to the American carfax or the like type systems. And yes, I would be very suspicious of fraud. Seems the VIN could be run in the US to check for theft, any kind of auto history site public or dealer is not the place to run the VIN.

MORAV

[Toad]

Let's see, there's one on the dash, the driverls door jamb, and on a sticker in the spare tire well that ffalls off easily. There might be more, but I can't think of em right now. There's usually a copy of the trunk sticker in the manual also.

[MyOtherRidesAVette]

I know exactly what your asking, and as with most cars, I'm sure, the VIN is also stamped eslewhere, usually concealed from open view, but these places typically aren't openly published, or for public consumption. A stick-on or pop-rivuted on tag is a poor method of permanent identification, and not to be relied on. Perhaps someone here has done a frame-off resto or parted one out and come across a location. Corvettes years ago had one hidden that required a mirror to view.

M.