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Online VIN Decoder: How can you find your car options?

Vin of a car is equivalent to the man's identity number.It represents the thing that only that car has, making it unique. It recently got to 17 characters ' letters and numbers. It reflects the unicity of the car and the ownership also an identification way for the factory that made it. It can be used to know its origin, for registration, warranty, theft and insurance coverage. Each character or digit has a particular purpose.

VIN History

Automobile companies from Detroit U.S., started to series their cars on the mid 50's. The main purpose of the VIN was to give an exact description of the car, since production began to increase significantly. So the first series of chassis had a structure very different according to each producer at the time.

In the early 80's National Traffic Safety Administration U.S. established that all motor vehicles on the road must have an identification number consisting of 17 characters. Thus was born standardized identification number that major vehicle manufacturers use now. The result was a unique VIN for each series vehicle that rolled off the assembly.

Vehicle identification number (vin) was first described in ISO Standard 3779 in February 1977 and last revised in 1983.

Vehicle Identification Number described in ISO was designed to identify motor vehicles, trailers, motorcycles and mopeds and consists of several parts as follows:

How to read vin (vehicle identification number)

The first character - Identifies the country where the vehicle was manufactured. For example: USA (1 or 4), Canada (2), Mexico (3), Japan (J), Korea (K), England (S), Germany (W), Italy (Z), Romania (U)

The second character - Identifies the manufacturer. For example: Audi (A), BMW (B), Buik (4), Chevrolet (1) Chrysler, Dodge (B), Ford (F) GMCanada (7) General Motors (G), Honda (H ), Jaquar (A), Lincoln (L), Mercedes Benz (D), Mercury (M), Nissan (N), Oldsmobile (3), Pontiac (2or5), Plymouth (P), Saturn (shades.gif, Toyota (T), VW (V), Volvo ( V), Dacia (U).

The third character - Identifies vehicle type or manufacturing division.

Characters from 4 to 8 - is the section describing the vehicle. These 5 characters occupy positions 4 through 8 of the VIN and can be used by the manufacturer to identify attributes of the vehicle. Attributes such as body type, engine type, model, series production, etc..

The ninth character - character verification "Number or letter of 9" from the string of numbers and letters in the VIN, was introduced in model after '81 (when it was established the format of 17 characters) and can best be described as identifying the VIN accuracy.

Each VIN shall consist of a letter of verification (1981) and must appear in position (9) of the VIN on the vehicle and any transfer documents that accompany it, prepared by the manufacturer to be given to the first owner. Thus, the vins of any two vehicles manufactured within 30 years, don`t have to be identical. Nature of verification means a single number or letter "x" used to verify the accuracy of the VIN.

After all other characters in VIN have been determined by the manufacturer, check digit is calculated by a mathematical computation specified. This position is based on vin, sample batch, code values and multiple other factors. All these values are added and divided by 11. The result is the digit number for verification. Normally, it should be a number from zero to nine (0-9). But if the result is 10, will be used for letter "X" to represent the character (letter / number) for verification.

10 th character - the model year. Eg.: 1988 (J), 1989 (K), 1990 (L), 1991 (M), 1992 (N), 1993 (P), 1994 , 1995 (S), 1996 (T), 1997 (V ), 1998

11 th character - plant where the vehicle was assembled.

Characters 12 to 17 - Vehicle Identifier Section. Last 8 characters are intended to identify the vehicle. Last 4 digits must always be numeric. Is series production of vehicles in the order they came off the assembly line.