In 1981, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration standardized the 17-character Vehicle Identification Number (VIN). Since then, all on-road vehicles sold in the United States have a VIN assigned to it. Other countries have also adopted the VIN format.
Interesting Fact: The Vehicle Identification Number does not use letters “I', “O” and “Q” to avoid confusion or misinterpretation (e.g., the number one and the letter “I” can be easily confused so only the number 1 is used).
The 17-character VIN is broken down into the following sections:
Breakdown of the VIN:
- Positions 1-3: World Manufacturer Identifier (or Manufacturer Identifier)
- Positions 4-8: Vehicle descriptor
- Position 9: Check digit
- Position 10: Model year
- Position 11: Plant code
- Positions 12-17: Production sequence number
Manufacturer Identifier (Positions 1-3)
The first 3 characters of the VIN identifies the manufacturer of the vehicle. The Manufacturer Identifier (also known as the World Manufacturer Identifier or WMI) is a unique code assigned by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) for the country and manufacturer.
The following table shows the Manufacturer Identifier codes for vehicles in North America:
| Manufacturer Identifier | Country | Manufacturer |
|---|---|---|
| 1B | United States | Dodge |
| 1C | United States | Chrysler |
| 1F | United States | Ford |
| 1G | United States | General Motors |
| 1G1 | United States | Chevrolet |
| 1G3 | United States | Oldsmobile |
| 1G4 | United States | Buick |
| 1G9 | United States | |
| 1GB | United States | Chevrolet incomplete vehicles |
| 1GC | United States | Chevrolet |
| 1GD | United States | GMC incomplete vehicles |
| 1GM | United States | Pontiac |
| 1HG | United States | Honda |
| 1J | United States | Jeep |
| 1L | United States | Lincoln |
| 1M | United States | Mercury |
| 1MR | United States | Continental |
| 1N | United States | Nissan |
| 1VW | United States | Volkswagen |
| 1YV | United States | Mazda |
| 1ZV | United States | Ford |
| 19U | United States | Honda |
| 2DG | Canada | Ontario Drive & Gear |
| 2F | Canada | Ford |
| 2GX | Canada | General Motors |
| 2G1 | Canada | Chevrolet |
| 2G2 | Canada | Pontiac |
| 2G9 | Canada | Gnome Homes |
| 2HG | Canada | Honda |
| 2HH | Canada | Acura |
| 2HJ | Canada | Honda |
| 2HK | Canada | Honda |
| 2HM | Canada | Hyundai |
| 2L9 | Canada | Les Contenants Durabac |
| 2LN | Canada | Lincoln |
| 2M | Canada | Mercury |
| 2T | Canada | Toyota |
| 3F | Mexico | Ford |
| 3G | Mexico | General Motors |
| 3HG | Mexico | Honda |
| 3HM | Mexico | Honda |
| 3KP | Mexico | Kia |
| 3N | Mexico | Nissan |
| 3VW | Mexico | Volkswagen |
| 4F | United States | Mazda |
| 4J | United States | Mercedes-Benz |
| 4M | United States | Mercury |
| 4S2 | United States | Isuzu Motors America Inc |
| 4S3 | United States | Subaru |
| 4S4 | United States | Subaru |
| 4S6 | United States | Honda |
| 4T | United States | Toyota |
| 4US | United States | BMW |
| 5FN | United States | Honda |
| 5FR | United States | Honda |
| 5J6 | United States | Honda |
| 5L | United States | Lincoln |
| 5N1 | United States | Nissan |
| 5NM | United States | Hyundai |
| 5NP | United States | Hyundai |
| 5T | United States | Toyota |
| 5U | United States | BMW |
| 5X | United States | Hyundai / Kia |
| 5YJ | United States | Tesla |
| 55 | United States | Mercedes-Benz |
For a complete list of Manufacturer codes, take a look at the Vehicle Identification Number article on Wikipedia.
Vehicle Descriptor (Positions 4-8)
The Vehicle Descriptor section is used to describe the information about the vehicle. Each manufacturer has their method of using this section describe the model and body style of the vehicle. Most manufacturers use the last character (position 8) in the Vehicle Descriptor to denote the engine type.
Check Digit (Position 9)
The Check Digit is used inconsistently by the manufacturer. According to Wikipedia, the check digit is compulsory for vehicles in North America and China, but not Europe.
Model Year (Position 10)
The model year of the vehicle is encoded in position 10 of the VIN. Using letters and numbers, the following table shows the model year of the vehicle.
Note that characters O, I, U and Z, and the number zero are not used in the model year code to avoid confusion and misinterpretation (e.g., the letter “V” and “U” may be misinterpreted so only the letter “V” is used and not the letter “U”).
| Code | Year | Code | Year | Code | Year | Code | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Y | 2000 | A | 2010 | L | 2020 | Y | 2030 |
| 1 | 2001 | B | 2011 | M | 2021 | 1 | 2031 |
| 2 | 2002 | C | 2012 | N | 2022 | 2 | 2032 |
| 3 | 2003 | D | 2013 | P | 2023 | 3 | 2033 |
| 4 | 2004 | E | 2014 | R | 2024 | 4 | 2034 |
| 5 | 2005 | F | 2015 | S | 2025 | 5 | 2035 |
| 6 | 2006 | G | 2016 | T | 2026 | 6 | 2036 |
| 7 | 2007 | H | 2017 | V | 2027 | 7 | 2037 |
| 8 | 2008 | J | 2018 | W | 2028 | 8 | 2038 |
| 9 | 2009 | K | 2019 | X | 2029 | 9 | 2039 |
Plant Code (Position 11)
This position is used in North America and China to encode the vehicle assembly plant. Each manufacturer has their own encoding for the plant code.
Production Sequence Number (Positions 12-17)
This section is used by the manufacturer to encode the vehicle's serial number or production number. The production sequence number is unique for each vehicle and like the Plant Code, each manufacture has their own sequence number format.