What does a VIN number check reveal?

Answer 1

Digit 1: Nation of origin

"1" = U.S., "2" = Canada, "W" = West Germany

Digits 2: Manufacturer

Digit 3: Model

Digits 4 to 8: Vehicle Description Series

These digits represent items such as the car or truck line, series, body type, restraint system, and engine. Since they are assigned at the manufacturer's discretion, they are not always in the same order. For example, General Motors uses positions (4) and (5) for car-line series, position (6) for body style, position (7) for the restraint system (type of seat belts, etc.), and position (8) for engine type. On the other hand, Ford uses position (4) for the restraint system, (5) for the designation, (6) and (7) for the body type, and position (8) for the engine.

Digit 9: Check Digit

This digit is mathematically derived from values assigned to the other 16 digits. The check digit will determine whether a VIN is a valid number, or not.

Digit 10: Year of Manufacture

Digit 11 - Assembly Plant

Digits 12 to 17: Production Number

This is the sequential number that is assigned to the vehicle as it leaves the plant. It tells you what number on the assembly line your car was. Car lines can start anywhere between 000000 and 999999. Furthermore, please note that there has been instances where the sequential production number of a car exceeded the published total car output for that model year! How can that be? There could be a production number gap, for whatever reason. Or maybe some prototypes were included in there. Or perhaps the total production number is wrong... who knows?