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Where Can Be Found?
On cars dashboards, driver's side door jamb stickers, and title documents.
Main purpose of VIN number is identification of vehicle. But it can be used to obtain a lot other information about it:
- Vehicle History Reports - they are offered by CARFAX and Autocheck, two companies with wide databases of VIN numbers. The history reports are only available on cars made after 1981. The information that can be obtained from car history report is:
* accident information
* salvage or junk status
* flood, fire or hail damage information
* odometer information
* lemons
* gray market information
* fleet / rental vehicles
* records of theft
* current liens on the vehicle
* theft information
* car recalls
- obtain an information about who is the manufacturer of the vehicle, what year is manufactured, what is the country or region of the manufacturing and more. The following explanation is about the VIN historical systems and structure. Easier way is to be used VIN decoders. For more complete decoding we offer links to two VIN decoders.
- checking if the vehicle has a deactivated airbags. (this check is no more available).
- checking if the vehicle is a destructively tested vehicle.
History Of VIN:
First VIN period is from 1949 to 1964.
The VIN number in this period corresponds with the production serial number. The information which can be obtained is only what is the vehicle's model.
Second VIN period is from 1964 to 1980.
The VIN number in this period includes vehicle model and year, together with the serial number. The model is indicated by the first two digits, the year is indicated by the third digit, and the serial number is indicated by fourth through tenth digits.
The vehicles manufactured from 1965 to 1969 have a 9-digit VIN, except the cases when production exceeded 1 million. Then the VIN contains 10 digits, as the fourth digit is 1.
The vehicles, manufactured from 1970 to 1979 have a 10-digit VIN, as the fourth digit is 2 or 3.
The vehicles from 1980 have a 10-digit VIN, as the third digit is A.
Third VIN period is from 1981 to current years (ISO Standard 3779 February 1977 and last revised in 1983).
The cars now have 17-digit VIN number. It includes not only the year, model and serial number, but also the country of manufacture, body style, engine type, restraint system, and manufacturing plant. The VIN contains three sections:
- World Manufacturer Identifier (WMI). It is unique and identifies the maker of the car. The first three positions of the VIN are reserved for WMI, except the case when a manufacturer makes less than 500 vehicles per year. Then the third digit is always a 9 and the 12th, 13th and 14th position of the VIN are used for the second part of the WMI.
- Vehicle Descriptor Section (VDS). It uses 6 characters and it's reserved for positions 4 through 9 of the VIN. It's used by the manufacturer to identify vehicle's attributes.
- Vehicle Identifier Section (VIS). It takes the last 8 characters of the VIN. These characters are used to identify specific vehicle. Also the last 4 characters are always numeric.
For more information visit our links page.
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Check your car history report here:
AutoCheck - the same information as CARFAX on lower price (check below a price comparison table)
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AutoCheck |
CARFAX |
| 1 Report |
$24.99 |
$29.99 |
| 10 Reports |
- |
$34.99 |
| 30 days |
- |
$39.99 |
| 60 days |
$39.99 |
- |
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