Most car manufacturers have switched to a standard vehicle identification number which holds encoded informations about the car and not only its serial number. This international normalized VIN has 17 digits and each digit stands for a coded information.
The 1. digit encoded the country of the manufacturer (examples):
| 1.Digit | Country | 1.Digit | Country | 1.Digit | Country | 1.Digit | Country | 1.Digit | Country |
|---|
| 1 = | USA | 2 = | Canada | 3 = | Mexiko | 4 = | USA | J = | Japan |
| K = | Korea | S = | Great-Britain | W = | Germany | Z = | Italy | | |
The 2. digit encodes the brand or Manufacturer (examples):
| 2.Digit | Brand | 2.Digit | Brand | 2.Digit | Brand | 2.Digit | Brand | 2.Digit | Brand | 2.Digit | Brand |
|---|
| 1 = | Chevrolet | 2 = | Pontiac | 3 = | Oldsmobile | 4 = | Buick | 5 = | Pontiac | 6 = | Cadillac |
| 7 = | GM Canada | 8 = | Saturn | A = | Audi | A = | Jaguar | B = | BMW | B = | Dodge |
| C = | Chrysler | D = | Mercedes Benz | F = | Ford | G = | Genral Motors | H = | Honda | L = | Lincoln |
| M = | Mercury | N = | Nissan | O = | Opel | P = | Plymouth | T = | Toyota | V = | Volvo |
The 3. digits encodes information about the type of the car.
The 4. to 8. digit contains informations about the equippment of the car as e.g. body, engine, model, series etc.
The 9. digit is a checksum digit calculated from the other digits.
The 10. digit contains the year of build:
| 10.Digit | Year | 10.Digit | Year | 10.Digit | Year | 10.Digit | Year |
|---|
| 1 = | 1971 | B = | 1981 | M = | 1991 | 1 = | 2001 |
| 2 = | 1972 | C = | 1982 | N = | 1992 | 2 = | 2002 |
| 3 = | 1973 | D = | 1983 | P = | 1993 | 3 = | 2003 |
| 4 = | 1974 | E = | 1984 | R = | 1994 | 4 = | 2004 |
| 5 = | 1975 | F = | 1985 | S = | 1995 | 5 = | 2005 |
| 6 = | 1976 | G = | 1986 | T = | 1996 | 6 = | 2006 |
| 7 = | 1977 | H = | 1987 | V = | 1997 | 7 = | 2007 |
| 8 = | 1978 | J = | 1988 | W = | 1998 | 8 = | 2008 |
| 9 = | 1979 | K = | 1989 | X = | 1999 | 9 = | 2009 |
| A = | 1980 | L = | 1990 | Y = | 2000 | A = | 2010 |
The 11. digit encodes the factory where the car was build.
The digits 12 to 17 are finally the serial number of the car.
