Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) are used to uniquely identify motor vehicles. Prior to 1980 there was not an accepted standard for these numbers, so different manufacturers used different formats. Modern day VINs consist of 17 characters that do not include the letters I, O or Q. Depending on the capitalization, Vin can refer to any of the following: Vin = input voltage (an alternative form for Vin) Old European Script A diminutive of the name Vincent, as in: Vin Diesel Vin Scully The name of a character from the video games Jak II and Jak 3: Vin... Year 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar). ...

Parts of the VIN

Modern Vehicle Identification Number systems are based on two related standards originally issued by the ISO in 1979 and 1980, ISO 3779 and ISO 3780, respectively. Compatible but somewhat different implementations of these ISO standards have been adopted by the European Union and the United States of America ^[1]. “ISO” redirects here. ...

The VIN is composed of the following sections:

World Manufacturer Identifier

The first three characters uniquely identify the manufacturer of the vehicle using the World Manufacturer Identifier or WMI code. A manufacturer that builds fewer than 500 vehicles per year uses a 9 as the third digit and the 12th, 13th and 14th position of the VIN for a second part of the identification. Some manufacturers use the third character as a code for a vehicle category (e.g., bus or truck), a division within a manufacturer, or both. For example, within 1G (assigned to General Motors in the United States), 1G1 represents Chevrolet passenger cars; 1G2, Pontiac passenger cars; and 1GC, Chevrolet trucks. Manufacturing is the transformation of raw materials into finished goods for sale, or intermediate processes involving the production or finishing of semi-manufactures. ... General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM), also known as GM, is an American automobile maker with worldwide operations and brands including Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Holden, Hummer, Opel, Pontiac, Saturn, Saab and Vauxhall. ... Chevrolet (IPA: - French origin), (colloquially Chevy) , is a brand of automobile, produced by General Motors (GM). ... Pontiac is a marque of automobile produced by General Motors and sold in the United States, Canada and Mexico from 1926 to the present. ... For other uses, see Truck (disambiguation). ...

The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) in the US assigns WMIs to countries and manufacturers.^[2] SAE International (SAE) is a professional organization for mobility engineering professionals in aerospace, automotive and the commercial vehicle industries. ...

The first character of the WMI is the region in which the manufacturer is located. In practice, each is assigned to a country of manufacture.

Vehicle Descriptor Section

The 4th through 9th positions in the VIN are the Vehicle Descriptor Section or VDS. This is used, according to local regulations, to identify the vehicle type and may include information on the platform used, the model, and the body style. Each manufacturer has a unique system for using this field. Most manufacturers since the 1980s have used the 8th digit to identify the engine type whenever there is more than one engine choice for the vehicle. Example: for the 2007 Chevrolet Corvette U= 6.0L V8, E= 7.0L V8. An automobile platform is a shared set of components common to a number of different automobiles. ... Cars can come in a large variety of different body styles. ... The Chevrolet Corvette is a sports car that has been manufactured by Chevrolet since 1953. ... The Liberty V8 aircraft engine clearly shows the configuration A V8 engine is a V engine with eight cylinders. ... The Liberty V8 aircraft engine clearly shows the configuration A V8 engine is a V engine with eight cylinders. ...

North American Check Digits

One element that is fairly consistent is the use of position 9 as a check digit, compulsory for vehicles in North America and used fairly consistently even outside this rule.

Vehicle Identifier Section

The 10th through 17th positions are used as the Vehicle Identifier Section or VIS. This is used by the manufacturer to identify the individual vehicle in question. This may include information on options installed or engine and transmission choices, but often is a simple sequential number. In fact, in North America, the last five digits must be numeric.

North American Model Year

One consistent element of the VIS is character number 10, which is required (in North America) to encode the model year of the vehicle.

North American Plant Code

Another consistently-used element (which is compulsory in North America) is the use of the 11th character to encode the factory of manufacture of the vehicle. Although each manufacturer has their own set of plant codes, their location in the VIN is standardized.

Model year encoding

Besides the three letters that are not allowed in the VIN itself (I, O and Q), the letters U and Z and the digit 0 are not used for the year code. Note that the year code can be the calendar year in which a vehicle is built, or a model or type year allocated by the manufacturer. The year 1980 was encoded by some manufacturers, especially General Motors and Chrysler, as "A" (since the 17-digit VIN wasn't mandatory until 1981, and the "A" or zero was in the manufacturer's pre-1981 placement in the VIN), yet Ford and AMC still used a zero for 1980. Subsequent years increment through the allowed letters, so that "Y" represents the year 2000. 2001 through 2009 are encoded as the digits 1 through 9, and subsequent years are encoded as "A", "B", "C", etc. General Motors Corporation, also known as GM or The General, an American multinational conglomerate corporation, is the worlds largest auto company by annual production volume for 2006, and the second largest by sales volume as of the first half of 2007, behind Toyota Motor Corporation. ... For other uses, including the Chrysler Brand, see Chrysler (disambiguation). ... “Ford” redirects here. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Check Digit Calculation

If trying to validate a VIN with a check digit, first either: (a) remove the check digit for the purpose of calculation; or (b) utilize the multiplicative property of zero in the weight to cancel it out. You should later compare the old value of the check-bit, with the new to ensure the VIN's validity. The zero-product propety states that if the product of two elements a and b is zero, then one of a or b must be zero. ...

Overview of the process

An overview of the process for calculating a VIN's check digit is as follows:

1. Remove all of the letters from the VIN by transliterating them with their numeric counterparts. Numerical counterparts can be found in the table below.
2. Multiply this new number, the yield of the transliteration, with the assigned weight. Weights can be found in the table below.
3. Sum the resulting products.
4. Divide the sum of the products by 11, to find the remainder.
5. If the remainder is 10 replace it with X.

Transliteration is the practice of transcribing a word or text written in one writing system into another writing system. ... In mathematics, a product is the result of multiplying, or an expression that identifies factors to be multiplied. ...

Transliterating the numbers

Transliteration consists of removing all of letters and substituting them with their appropriate numerical counterparts. These numerical alternatives can be found in the following chart. I, O and Q are not allowed, and can not exist in a valid VIN; for the purpose of this chart, they have been filled in with N/A (not applicable). Numerical digits use their own values.

S is 2, and not 1. There is no left-alignment linearity.

Weights used in calculation

The following is the weight factor for each position in the VIN. The 9th position is that of the check digit. It has been substituted with a 0, which will cancel it out in the multiplication step.

Worked example

Consider the hypothetical VIN 1M8GDM9A_KP042788, where the underscore will be the check digit.

1. The VIN's Value is calculated from the above table, this number will be used in the rest of the calculation.
2. Copy over the weights from the above table.
3. The products row is a result of the multiplication of the vertical columns: Value and Weight.
4. The products (8,28,48,35..24,16) are all added together to yield a sum of 351
5. One of the following operations:
   • 351 % 11 = 10
   • 351/11 = 10 10/11
   • 351/11 = 10.0909-
6. The check digit is 10, so it has been transliterated into X.

With a check digit of 'X' the VIN: 1M8GDM9A?KP042788 is written with the check bit as: 1M8GDM9AXKP042788.

See also

• List of Ford VIN codes
• List of GM VIN codes
• Honda VIN codes
• Land Rover VIN codes
• Mercedes-Benz VIN codes
• Subaru VIN codes
• Toyota VIN codes
• Ferrari VIN Code
• Maserati VIN code
• Lamborghini VIN code
• VIN Etching

Ford Motor Company uses the following VIN formats and codes. ... General Motors uses the following VIN formats and codes. ... Honda uses the following VIN formats and codes. ... From 1948 to the early eighties, Land Rover used for their cars chassis numbers of their own format. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Subaru uses a 17-character VIN format and code. ... // Toyota used the following VIN format and codes in the USA after 1996. ... Ferrari VIN Code All VINs start with ZFF (Europe, Italy, Ferrari). ... Maserati VIN code All start with the letters ZAM (Europe, Italy, Maserati). ... Lamborghini VIN codes (vehicle identification numbers) start with ZHW (Europe, Italy, Lamborghini). ... VIN etching is a countermeasure to motor vehicle theft. ...

References

External links

• VIN entry in the National Transportation Library FAQ
• VIN Decoding PDF with inline database (pdf).