Deciphering the VIN code of the car - online

To get complete information about a particular car, it is enough to know a unique combination of Latin letters and numbers, which is called the VIN-code, which literally means “vehicle identification code” in English.

The VIN code consists of 17 characters - letters and numbers.

To decrypt them, it is enough to use numerous Internet services where there are fields for entering this code. The system will immediately analyze the sequence of characters and give you complete information about the car:

• country of production, factory.
• model and brand, main specifications.
• build date.

In addition, the VIN code of any registered car is entered into the traffic police database of a particular country, and knowing it, you can get complete information about this vehicle: fines, theft, owners, accidents. Russia has its own traffic police databases, where all this information is stored and available both via the Internet and by direct contact with the traffic police department.

Separately, it should be said that there are no general rules for compiling a VIN code, any manufacturer himself sets the order of the sequence of letters and numbers, therefore, in order to decrypt, you need to know the principle of compiling the code by a specific manufacturer. Fortunately, there are many different tables that show all these differences.

What is a VIN made up of?

These 17 characters are divided into three parts:

• WMI - manufacturer's index;
• VDS - description of this particular car;
• VIS is the serial number.

The manufacturer's index is the first three characters. By these three figures, you can find out on which continent, in which country and in which plant the car was assembled. Each country has its own designation, just like on the Internet or on barcodes. One was appropriated, as always, by the Americans. The type designation 1G1 will say that we have a passenger car of the General Motors concern - Chevrolet. Russia, on the other hand, got the modest letter “X” - X3-XO - this is how any cars produced in the Russian Federation will be designated.

This is followed by the descriptive part of the VIN code - VDS. It consists of six characters and it can be used to learn about the following characteristics of the car:

• model;
• body type;
• equipment;
• type of gearbox;
• ICE type.

At the end of the descriptive part, a check character is placed - the ninth in a row. If they want to interrupt it in order to hide the dark past of the vehicle, then the VIN code will become unreadable, that is, it will not confirm the authenticity of the marking, respectively, the buyer or inspector will have doubts about this car. This control mark is mandatory in the US and Chinese markets.

European manufacturers consider this requirement to be recommendatory, however, on the VIN code of Mercedes, SAAB, BMW and Volvo you will definitely meet this sign. It is also used by Toyota and Lexus.

On the website of any automaker, you can find a detailed decoder, which indicates the meaning of each character. For example, the Swedes and Germans approach the description in detail, from these six figures you can find out everything, right down to the modification of the engine and the series of the model itself.

Well, the last part of the VIS - it encodes the serial number, model year and the division in which this machine was assembled. VIS consists of eight characters. The first character is the year of manufacture. Years are designated as follows:

• from 1980 to 2000 - in Latin letters from A to Z (letters I, O and Q are not used);
• from 2001 to 2009 - numbers from 1 to 9;
• from 2010 - letters again, that is, 2014 will be designated as “E”.

It is worth noting that there are some peculiarities in the designation of the model year, for example, in America the model year begins in June, and in Russia for some time they set not the current model year, but the next one. In some countries, the year is not celebrated at all.

After the model year comes the serial number of the division of the company where the car was produced. For example, if you buy an AUDI of a German assembly, and the eleventh character of the VIN code is the letter “D”, then this means that you have a Slovak, not a German assembly, the car was assembled in Bratislava.

The last characters from the 12th to the 17th inclusive are the serial number of the car. In it, the manufacturer encrypts only information that is understandable to him, such as the number of the brigade or shift, the quality control department, and so on.

You do not need to learn certain designations by heart, since you can easily use various applications for smartphones that will decipher the VIN code for you. You just need to know where to look for it:

• on the driver's door pillar;
• under the hood on the passenger side;
• maybe in the trunk, or under the fenders.

It is important to visually assess its condition. Traces that the code is interrupted, you can not notice. Be sure to check the VIN code if you buy a used car.

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