The VIN identifies many things about your vehicle. For example when your vehicle was originally assembled and who was the original manufacturer (OE). Also the VIN can tell us the location where your vehicle was built, the model year, the make and the model. It can identify the engine size and type of transmission that was originally assembly in your vehicle.

Identifying the location of your parts e VIN?

The VIN can be found by looking at the dashboard on the driver side of the vehicle. If the VIN cannot be found, open the driver side door and look at the door post (where the door latches when it is closed). It is likely that the VIN will also be displayed in this location.

Other places where you can find your parts VIN is on your vehicle’s title, registration, insurance card, or insurance policy.

Understanding your VIN #

Here are some guidelines to understanding your parts serial (VIN) number:
• 1st character- Identifies the country in which the vehicle was manufactured.
For example: U.S.A.(1or4), Canada(2), Mexico(3), Japan(J), Korea(K), England(S), Germany(W), Italy(Z)
• 2nd character- Identifies the manufacturer. For example; Audi(A),
BMW(B), Buick(4), Cadillac(6), Chevrolet(1), Chrysler(C), Dodge(B),
Ford(F), GM Canada(7), General Motors(G), Honda(H), Jaquar(A), Lincoln(L), Mercedes Benz(D), Mercury(M), Nissan(N), Oldsmobile(3), Pontiac(2or5), Plymouth(P), Saturn(8), Toyota(T), VW(V), Volvo(V).
• 3rd character- Identifies vehicle type or manufacturing division.
• 4th to 8th characters- Identifies vehicle features such as body style, engine type, model, series, etc.
• 9th character- Identifies VIN accuracy as check digit.
• 10th character- Identifies the model year. For example: 1988(J), 1989(K), 1990(L), 1991(M), 1992(N), 1993(P), 1994(R), 1995(S), 1996(T),
1997(V), 1998(W), 1999(X), 2000(Y)------2001(1), 2002(2), 2003(3), 2004(4), 2005(5), 2006(6), 2007(7), 2008(8)
• 11th character- Identifies the assembly plant for the vehicle.
• 12th to 17th characters- Identifies the sequence of the vehicle for production
as it rolled of the manufacturers assembly line.

Resources

Here are some other sources you may find helpful about VIN decoding, history and general information that is supplied by other industries and companies:

AutoCheck: http://www.autocheck.com
Car Detective: http://www.cardetective.com/vin-lookup.html
Carfax: http://www.carfax.com
Consumer Guide Automotive: http://auto.consumerguide.com/

Here are a few other sites you can learn more about your vehicle’s VIN. http://www.vehicleidentificationnumber.com/index.html
http://www.analogx.com/contents/vinview.htm