My sister has a 2018 VW Tiguan whose driver side she mutilated by grinding on a lamp post in the local grocery store parking lot. After researching door shell replacements, I came to the conclusion that it would be cheaper to buy a salvaged car at an auction than to buy 2 door shells separate (would also need to repaint, etc.). The problem is, VW made 2 similar colors for the vehicle - Pure White and Silver White Metallic. The auction only says the color is “White” and it’s not very easy to tell from the photo which of the 2 white colors the car is.
With all of that in mind, is it possible to tell what color the vehicle is based on the VIN? I tried VIN decoders, but they don’t specify. I’ve also had no luck getting Monroney Labels generated for the vehicles. Any ideas?
I probably should have clarified - my sister’s car is the White Silver Metallic. What I’m wondering is what the color of the auction cars is (the auctions are ~3-5 hours away from my locations, so I won’t see the vehicles prior to bidding on them). What I do know is the VIN of the auction vehicles, which I was hoping to use to determine their actual color to see if it matches my sister’s car.
Deciding color by raw VIN alone is not possible. Your best bet is to call VW service dept with VIN of car in question and see what they can pull up on their side for confirmation. Most SAs will help with this.
Even if you manage to get the same type of white, you aren’t assuming that a door from another car is going to match after 5 years without some paint work, are you?
Yes, I am not assuming that. However, I am assuming that paying $800 for each door shell (primed) + cost of painting will still be more expensive than getting a salvage for ~$500 - $800 and doing some paint correction work. I could be wrong, but that’s my reasoning for looking into this option.
It makes sense, but without being able to see new doors next to existing quarter panels it’s going to be hard to know if matching is beyond paint correction. In trying to not paint the doors you may still need to blend the quarter panels for it to look right.
Inside the driver door panel where VIN is located usually also has the paint code on VW, but as mentioned it’s not encoded into the VIN - if it’s already been removed from the donor frame it will be tough to be certain. Tiguans are built in multiple factories — IIRC for US they were mostly built in Germany and Puebla/MX. I would try and match first couple digits of VIN in addition to the color in hopes paint is a better match, but if one was outside the past 5 years and the other was garaged
I understand what you are trying to and it makes sense but ask a bodyshop first how much they would charge to swap doors with the donor car first. It would save you some time planning things.
I would narrow down to 2-3 paint/body shop that will install a donor door and get quotes to paint the whole side vs blending - see if its even worth chasing a white one vs the best one you can find at lowest cost.
