Vehicle Identification Number Reveal the Truth About Your Car

May 2, 2008 – 12:19 am

by Richard Brown

When researching the history of a vehicle it is critical to know its true origins. Whether you are planning to purchase a minivan and need to know its history, or you want to sell your Mustang and want to provide the most complete information on it to potential buyers, it’s important to know where to research this information.

It’s mandatory for every car and truck produced that is sold in the United States includes an ID called a VIN (Vehicle Identification Number). Every Vehicle Identification Number consists of vital information that acts like a birth certificate for that vehicle. This VIN is always unique to a vehicle.

Before to 1981 each car maker was allowed to create whatever system they wanted to use for their VINs. This led to mass confusion with no simple way to determine what vehicle a VIN represented just by looking at the number. This chaos was altered by an industry standard 17-character identifier that was released in 1981. If you want to read the older formats there are several resources on the Internet, but only Decode This! (http://www.decodethis.com) provides a free VIN decoder that will decode all early VINs from one web site.

The current VIN format is divided into several sections that allows certain information to be gleaned from the identifier. Each make, for example, is identified by the first few characters. The VIN also includes the restraint system, engine code, model year, and a six-digit serial number. Together this information makes up the VIN. Once again, Decode This! provides a comprehensive modern VIN decoder to allow you to automatically decode this information.

It is important to realize the VIN includes a lot of information but there are things that it does NOT include. There is no code on the specific optional equipment items installed on an individual vehicle. Since the VIN is assigned to the car or truck at the beginning of the assembly line, and the optional equipment items are installed later in the process, the VIN has no information on this optional equipment. This means the VIN can tell you the possible equipment that was available for a particular model, but it will not be a vehicle history report on a particular car or truck. The original manufacturers have this information in separate databases that they license for use to certain vendors.

Online VIN decoders such as Decode This! take the VIN and using a database of information provide the information contained in that identifier in an easy to read format. Decode This! for example has an extensive on all the information available for each model year and manufacturer of cars and trucks in the US. You can get a detailed report of the information available for your vehicle.

Other web sites can use this VIN data to provide a way to quickly identify a vehicle. WindowSticker.us (http://www.windowsticker.us), a custom automotive window sticker application, uses the VIN to determine the make, model, and year, as well as what the standard and optional equipment was available for the model year. It also can determine the possible internal and external color choices that were available.

So when you’re looking for information about a vehicle the Vehicle Identification Number is a great way to start the process.

About the Author:

The author has developed VIN Decoders that process collected information about vehicles. He’s also a known expert on automotive applications such as the Custom Car Window Sticker web site known as WindowSticker.us.

Tags: Automotive & Cars