1972 El Camino Production Numbers by Individual Plant*

* There is no separation of El Camino versus other Chevelle body styles by plant. The production figures above are for all body styles of Chevelle and since only 3 U.S. plants did final assembly of El Caminos, only those 3 plants are listed.

Continuing from 1970, 1971 presents the same challenges on VIN sequencing. The Monte Carlo production is included in the VIN sequence and production total negating any way of separating out the El Camino VIN sequencing.

⁽¹⁾ Chevrolet's published figure for the 1972 model year is 631,661 units and include Monte Carlo production so there does not appear to be an accurate way to know what the last Chevelle VIN would be for any given plant/month. Chevrolet's Accumulative Production Report shows 17,608 units less than reported VIN's. July end of month VIN's were not reported so there would have to be even more units built than Chevrolet's report.

⁽²⁾ VIN sequence number as high as 702,443 has been reported for Baltimore with a June 4th week body date (06D).

⁽³⁾ Examples of known Chevelles with VIN number higher than end of the month reported VIN.

Caveats and Disclaimers:

The numbers shown are reported last VINs from each plant per month. The numbers above those in red are instances of matching VIN and Fisher Body plates to show VINs/body dates outside the published numbers. The Fisher Body Number plate build week not match the calendar week; meaning an example body date of 04A may not be the first physical or even calendar week of April. Productions are scheduled well in advance of actual build date and given it takes 3 to 4 days to physically build the car once it is scheduled, you can see where the body date will not always match up with the VIN sequence. Obviously the body plates, and the associated information, are stamped when the cars are scheduled, not as they roll by a particular station. Cars with 04A body dates may run into week 04B of production. GM wouldn't just toss out the existing body number plates with 04A just because the car didn't physically get completed until the following week.

In reality, don't place too much emphasis on the body date as opposed to the last reported VIN for a given month. The anomalies shown are shown for that very reason. It does happen and that should not be a basis for worry that your car may have had the body plate (trim tag) and/or VIN altered.

If you have trim tags/VINs plates with dates and sequence numbers that don't fall into the range of those shown below, please email me the trim tag and sequence number and I'll post the oddity. Email it to me via my contact page.