Decoding a car's VIN code: how to read the designations

It all started in 1977, when the ISO 3779 standard, which described the format of VIN numbers, was adopted in the USA and Canada.

Currently, the international standard ISO 3779:1983 (last revision - from 1996) is in effect, and the World Manufacturer Index (WMI - part of the code) is determined by the ISO 3780:1983 standard.

The identification number is located on a non-removable part of the body in places least susceptible to destruction in an accident and is duplicated on a plate located in the front part of the vehicle. The VIN of modern cars is located on the front left pillar of the body and the upper left part of the dashboard.

If a vehicle is manufactured sequentially by several enterprises, it is permissible to apply the main marking of the vehicle only by the manufacturer of the final product.

The VIN number consists of 17 characters - Latin letters and digits. In this case, the symbols I, O, and Q are not used in code combinations due to their similarity to the digits 1 and 0.

Each character of the VIN number carries information about one or another characteristic of the car: about the country and manufacturer, date of manufacture, technical characteristics, etc.

The VIN number of a car consists of three parts: WMI VDS VIS

• WMI (World Manufacturers Identification) - world manufacturer index (from 1st to 3rd characters of the number);
• VDS (Vehicle Description Section) - descriptive part (from 4th to 9th characters of the number);
• VIS (Vehicle Identification Section) - distinctive part (from 10th to 17th characters of the VIN number)

WMI

WMI - international manufacturer identification code. It consists of three characters (letters or digits).

The first character denotes the geographic zone, the second - the country in this zone, the third - a specific manufacturer (sometimes - the type of vehicle).

If the manufacturer produces less than 500 vehicles per year, then the third character of the code is the digit 9.

A manufacturer can have several WMIs assigned, but the same number is prohibited from being assigned to another car manufacturer for at least 30 years from the moment it was first used by the previous (first) manufacturer.

So, the first character of WMI is a letter or digit denoting the geographic zone code. Each zone is assigned several characters:

• from A to H - Africa;
• from J to R - Asia;
• from S to Z - Europe;
• from 1 to 5 - North America;
• from 6 to 7 - Oceania;
• from 8 to 9 - South America;

The second character (country code) is a letter or digit that denotes the country. To ensure flexibility and unambiguity in identification, a specific country is determined by the combination of the first and second digits of the code:

Despite the parameters clearly specified in the standard, the designation assigned to the country of manufacture is not always used. For example, cars of the European division of General Motors, whose head office is in Germany, are marked as W0 regardless of the country of manufacture (be it Germany, Spain, Great Britain, Belgium, or Poland).

The third character is a letter or digit assigned to the manufacturer by the national organization. It can also mean the type of vehicle or production department.

The digit 9 as the third character is used if the manufacturer produces less than 500 cars per year.

Just like the identification of the country, determining the plant requires knowledge of all three characters of the WMI. For example, here are the WMI codes that correspond to some plants located in the CIS:

In other geographic zones, manufacturers have the following indices:

VDS

The second part of the VIN code is the description - the vehicle descriptor.

4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th characters are used to determine the vehicle type and describe the vehicle's characteristics:

• model line,
• body type,
• engine type,
• steering wheel position,
• fuel system and transmission type,
• drive,
• etc.

Each manufacturer has its own set of parameters, its own sequence, and its own unique designations.

The 8th character is used in most cases to determine the engine type. Unused positions are filled with characters at the manufacturer's discretion.

9th character - for manufacturers from the USA and China (as well as those exporting cars to the USA) - is a check digit that serves as one of the means of protection against VIN tampering. European, Japanese, and Korean companies do not always follow the standard and use this character for additional vehicle information.

VIS

The third part of the VIN code - the vehicle identifier section (VIS) - consists of eight characters, with the last four characters of this section necessarily being digits. Moreover, information about the model year and manufacturing plant is not strictly fixed by the standard but is only of a recommendatory nature.

10th character of the VIN code usually denotes the vehicle's model year.

It should be remembered that the model year can significantly precede the calendar year and may be counted not from January 1, but, for example, from August (Audi) or July (VAZ) of the previous calendar year.

Some manufacturers, such as Renault, Mercedes-Benz, and Toyota, do not indicate the model year in the VIN code at all. The year of manufacture is indicated on the plate on the body.

Nevertheless, vehicles produced for the American market are all marked strictly according to the standard.

In addition to the three letters prohibited for use in VIN (I, O, and Q), the letters U, Z, and the digit 0 are also not used for encoding the model year.

Ford's European division indicates the production date as fully as possible in the VIN code: the 11th position contains the year of manufacture symbol, and the 12th - the month.

Table for determining Ford production date:

11th character most often indicates the vehicle assembly plant (for each manufacturer, there is its own designation system - its own letters).

12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th characters are allocated for the vehicle's serial number. They denote the sequence of vehicle production.

Example of a VIN code for Audi vehicles

(from carinfo.kiev.ua)

The Audi decoding table looks as follows:

Example of a VIN code for Skoda vehicles

(from carinfo.kiev.ua)

How VIN numbers are "re-stamped"

To avoid becoming victims of fraudsters, you should know the main methods and signs of "re-stamped" VIN codes.

There are quite a few such methods:

• removing and replacing part or all of the marking panel (there are various ways and options);
• adding elements to characters that have similar shapes (for example, 1 becomes 4, 6, or 3 becomes 8);
• reverse transformation - melting away "extra" elements, turning, for example, 4 into 1, 8 into 3 or 6.

Signs of "re-stamped" VIN codes

• traces of surface treatment and remnants of putty in the marking area;
• increased thickness of the coating or panel;
• welds on the marking panel;
• mismatch between the marking and its display on the reverse side of the panel;
• unclear character shapes, vertical and horizontal displacement of characters;
• different depths of characters;
• foreign strokes and differences in the execution of identical characters;
• difference in paint coating of the marking panel and adjacent areas;
• etc.

Conclusion

Car manufacturers have a sufficient degree of freedom to use their own designations in the VIN code structure, and it is not possible to list all features and designations within a single article.

Therefore, for complete information and vehicle identification, you should contact the manufacturer (importer, dealer) who can provide information about all VIN codes of "their" brands.

And the general, universal principles of decoding VIN codes - see above.