What Is A Vin Number?

By Author: Steve Khazakia
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If you're like me, your most common exposure to VINs is likely to be via police procedural shows like Law and Order, where the VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) of a particular automobile can turn out to be an important clue in the case. But here in the real world, what exactly is the significance of these digits? As it turns out, the tiny numbers hold a wealth of information about their associated vehicles.

Vehicle Identification Numbers are serial numbers assigned by the auto industry as a means to catalog individual automobiles. For decades, there was no standard VIN format, and each auto company employed their own unique system. However, since 1981, VINs have been standardized with a format that is identical across all manufacturers. VINs contain 17 characters and despite being Vehicle Identification Numbers, these characters can include letters as well as numbers. However, several letters, including "O," "I," and "Q" are never used in VINS, due to their likelihood of being confused with the numbers zero and one.

A VIN stays with a vehicle throughout its existence, and serves to link the car to a comprehensive ...
... record of its condition. If you're shopping for a new car, a VIN can help you gain access to reliable records of a particular automobile's service history, protecting you from buying a car that's likely to break down a mile after leaving the dealership.

So now that we know a little about VINs do and how and why they are used, let's take a look at the 17 characters themselves. What exactly do they mean?

The current VIN system is built on two pervious standards issued in the late 1970s and early 1980s by the ISO (International Organization for Standardization). These standards are termed "ISO 3779" after the first standard, issued in 1979, and "ISO 3780," after the version established in 1980.

Although smaller auto manufactures in North American and European Union countries have adopted a very similar standard VIN, also based on ISO 3779, it deviates slightly from the North American and European standard for companies that produce over 500 vehicles yearly. For the purposes of this article, we'll be looking at the standard VIN format for North American and European manufacturers who output over 500 vehicles a year.

A breakdown of the 17-digit VIN for North American and European vehicles goes as follows:

First Three Characters: World Manufacturer Identifier

The first three VIN characters form the World Manufacturer Identifier (WMI) code. Each manufacturer has their own unique WMI code, used to identify the company and its country of origin.

Fourth Through Ninth Characters: Vehicle Descriptor

The digits occupying spaces four through nine are known as the Vehicle Descriptor Section (VDS). The VDS contains encoded information about the automobile's platform, model, and body style. Although the VDS always occupies the same six characters, the individual manufacturers each have their own coding system within the allotted space. This allows the VDS record information that might only be relevant to a particular manufacturer. However, the character in the ninth and final space is always reserved for the "check digit" when dealing with vehicles manufactured in North America.

The Final Eight Characters: Vehicle Identifier Section

The Vehicle Identifier Section (VIS) is found in the final eight characters of the VIN. The VIN contains coded information relevant to an individual vehicle. This can include a reference to specific options installed in the car. A VIS can also contain information about things like the car's transmission type or even the type of engine, applicable in situations where the model of car can be purchased with different types of engines or transmissions.

The first digit of the VIS (also the 10th digit of the VIN) is used by all auto manufactures as the spot to encode the vehicle's model year. This is a legal requirement, worldwide.

The second character of the VIS (11th of the overall VIN) also has a standard purpose in all vehicles; it contains the "Plant Code." The plant code identifies not only the manufacturer but also the specific auto plant where the vehicle in question was first constructed.

Other VIN Functions
VINs can also have another important use as well; insurance companies and the police recommend having a small duplication of the VIN etched onto your vehicle. This can act like fingerprints on a person as a way to positively identify and reclaim your car in the event that it is stolen.

So there you have it; everything you'll ever need to know about a car, contained within 17 tiny characters (if you know the codes, that is). Oh, and remember, it's just a "VIN," not a "VIN number"; "Vehicle Identification Number Number" is a little redundant.
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