I am looking at a 1979 hertz/olds 442, W30 with a vin number


3K47R9M556503


I have looked on line and as usual most sights have problems with any VIN that is only 13 characters long, they ask for four more characters which do not exist.


Could some one please decode this vin code for me.


Any other info you may have on this car would be greatly appreciated.


Is this a rare model?


Thanks,

 

Your car is very rare. In fact this is the only olds/hertz on the planet.


However there were 2499 Hurst Oldsmobiles built in 1979. They were the only A body cars built that year with the 350 small block.


These cars are attractive, drive well but are slow as hell. Ran 17.2 sec 1/4 mi. Very nice examples can be found for less than $10K. Cars came in white or black with gold second color & contrasting interiors in white, black or gold.

 

Yes, Hertz is a rental car company. It's also a unit of frequency, such megaHertz (MHz) and kiloHertz (khZ) and named after Heinrich Hertz, who proved the existence of electromagnetic waves back in the 1800s.

This car is a HURST/Olds, as noted, and the VIN decodes as a 1979 Cutlass Calais Coupe with a 350 V-8 and 4-bbl carb built at Lansing, Michigan.

https://service.gm.com/dealerworld/vincards/

 

Back in the early '90's I'd read the classified ads at 5ish in the AM.

68 Hurst Olds 455 2,500 or make offer. Made the wake-up phone call and it turned out to be a 68 hearse Olds.

Henry

 

This is the third thread about a 1979 VIN this week...

One more time - automakers didn't start using the 17-character VIN until the 1981 model year. 1965-1980 VINs are only 13 characters. On-line VIN search sites cannot accept older VINs. This will help you decode your VIN.

By the way, if you look at the emblem on the side of the car, it says HURST/OLDS.

 

Actually, I like it better as a Hertz/Olds. It means it was once a rental car!