Vehicle Identification Numbers

A Vehicle Identification Number (or VIN Number for short) is a string of 17 alphanumberic characters that can never use "I", "O" or "Q".

World Manufacturing Index
The World Manufacturing Index is a unique method to identify the manufacturer and is the first three characters. If 500 or fewer vehicles were built, a "9" would be used as the third character, while positions 12 through 14 would be used as the second part of identification.

The first character is where the manufacturer built the vehicle.

Vehicle Details
Positions 4 through 8 are unique to a manufacturer to identify the model in which is built. The eighth character is common for engine identification.

Vehicle Identification
The tenth character is the model year. Aside from the three characters that cannot be used, this does not use "U", "Z" or "0". 1980 models were chosen my vehicle manufacturers and this system was not required until 1981.

Plant Code
Character eleven is the plant code. It is unique to every manufacturer.

Sequence Number
The last six characters serve as a sequence number in which a manufacturer of the vehicle took off the assembly line.

Check Digit
Before you can fill in character nine, a check digit rule is applied.

For letters, this formula is used to turn them into numbers:


 * 1) Turn all letters into numbers
 * 2) Multiply the numbers together
 * 3) Add the final results
 * 4) Divide the sum of the results by 11
 * 5) *If the remainder is 10, the check digit is writen with "X"

General Details

 * If the seventh character were a number for vehicles less than 10,000 lb GRV, it is built between 1980-2009. If it were a letter only, it would be built between 2010-2039. There is no GRV rule for vehicles built between 2040-2069.
 * A GRV over 10,000 lb would not follow this rule (mainly for 1980-2039).