Looking into purchasing an ariel atom

[MadMaxAtom]

There really should be a special Federal exclusion,and a specific designation for cars like the Atom,so anyone in any State can legally register one for their own personal use.Just because it does not fit in the "round hole "of established DOT-EPA-NHTSA....etc etc guidelines for personal transportation is NOT a valid reason do disallow them in any state...in my humble and pissed off opinion...

[ub2slow]

The early Brammo cars had VINs ...RAM217, ...RAM275-280, ...RAM282-290, and ...RAM326. Of those, all but ...RAM326 were technically 2005 cars, while 326 is a 2006. ...RAM281's frame was damaged and subsequently scrapped. That puts the total number of RAM cars at 17.

Note that the ...RAMxxx VIN's don't validate, either - the check digit is incorrect and since the prefix is for a low-volume manufacturer, the WMI decodes incorrectly (comes back as South Africa) as well.

My car is one of those RAM numbers you mentioned and it "validated" just fine in Florida!

[Terry Kennedy]

My car is one of those RAM numbers you mentioned and it "validated" just fine in Florida!

It depends on your state's DMV. The checksum is invalid for all RAM cars (I just tried them all) - if you don't believe me, go enter your VIN at http://www.autocheck.com. Note that http://www.carfax.com just uses the VIN you enter, and will report on RAM cars. For that matter, it will report on A2RT Brammo cars as well* - as long as the car was titled in a state that doesn't create new VINs (California does that, for example) - if it was assigned a new VIN by the state, you'd need to look it up under that VIN. Unfortunately, CARFAX no longer displays the "N records found" to indicate whether it is worthwhle to purchase a report on your Atom. However - if you look at the URL for its response, one of the first things in there is "numberOfRecords" which seems to show the correct number of records.

* I don't know what PIN assignment TMI received (if different from Brammo). But I expect CARFAX will process them as well, as long as they're 17 digits long.

[atomaker]

To help clarify re all Atom 3s built by TMI AutoTech (no Atom 2s built by TMI), they are each serialized via a unique 7-digit number affixed to a chassis plate. Early Brammo-built Atom 2s used 17-digit VINs; all later Brammo-built Atom 2s used 17-digit PINs. PINs are issued & controlled by SAE for the purposes of serializing & tracking off-road vehicles.

TMI's SRA cars each have separate & distinct S/Ns from Atom 3s.

[Gage]

To help clarify re all Atom 3s built by TMI AutoTech (no Atom 2s built by TMI), they are each serialized via a unique 7-digit number affixed to a chassis plate.

Here are examples of the 7-digit number in two locations on the Atom 3.