Overall structure
A VIN never contains the letters I, O or Q — they are too easy to confuse with 1 and 0. The standard (ISO 3779) splits the code into three parts: characters 1–3 identify the manufacturer, 4–9 describe the car, 10–17 identify the individual vehicle.
Characters 1–3: manufacturer code (WMI)
The first character usually shows the region (for example W — Germany, J — Japan, 1, 4 and 5 — the USA, X — Russia, Y6 — Ukraine), followed by the country and the maker. These three characters identify the brand.
Characters 4–9: vehicle descriptor
The maker encodes model, body, engine and trim here, each with its own scheme. In North America the ninth character is a check digit calculated from the others, so typos and forgeries are usually caught.
Characters 10–17: year, plant, serial number
The tenth character is the model year (letters A–Y and digits 1–9, a 30-year cycle, so the same letter can mean 1986 or 2016). The eleventh is the assembly plant, and the last six are the production serial number.
In practice
The decoded data should always match the paperwork and the listing. Try our free decoder — it also flags an invalid check digit.