VIN Structure Guide

World Manufacturer Identifier — identifies the manufacturer and country

• • First character: region (A–H Africa, J–R Asia, S–Z Europe, 1–5 North America)
• • Characters 2–3: manufacturer and plant family
• • Example: WBA = BMW (Germany), JSA = Suzuki (Japan)

Vehicle Descriptor Section — model, body, engine, and other attributes

• • Model-specific information
• • Body style, engine type, restraint system
• • Format varies by manufacturer

ISO 3779 checksum on North American VINs (first character 1–5)

• • Calculated from the other 16 characters
• • Helps catch typos on US/Canada/Mexico VINs
• • When it is a checksum: 0–9 or X (remainder 10)
• • Elsewhere, position 9 is often a plant or descriptor character, not a checksum

ISO / NHTSA year letter on North American VINs; omitted when the code is not in the ISO table

• • Letters A–Y excluding I, O, Q, U, Z
• • Digits 1–9 only — 2010 is A, not 0
• • Example: R = 2024 or 1994
• • Plants outside North America commonly use 0, U, or Z here. We still accept the VIN.

Manufacturing plant identifier

• • Identifies the factory where the vehicle was built
• • Format varies by manufacturer
• • Can be letters or numbers

Sequential production number (unique to each vehicle)

• • Unique serial number
• • Assigned during production
• • Makes each VIN unique