Recently, when recalling cars has become a hot topic across the market, VINs are many car users are interested in determining whether their vehicles are subject to recall.
VIN is a program initiated by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in the year of 1980 as a way to standardize the series numbers of cars. Vehicles manufactured before 1981 do not follow this international standard, so manufacturer information is required to decode. Why is the VIN valid? Because it was created by ISO so that every car has its own unique identity, it cannot be mistaken for another car.
Since it is entirely possible that two cars of the same manufacturer, the same place of manufacture, of the same type, use the same engine model and equipment, the VIN is required, made up of the home's serial number. production - the car's production serial number - to distinguish them.
VIN numbers are quite complicated. They contain lots of information - place of manufacture, model, type of vehicle, year of manufacture, body design, safety system ... - in just 17 digits and letters. Therefore, reading VIN is not easy, but requires certain knowledge.
VIN includes 17 numbers and letters, each letter / number representing a different information about the vehicle. For example, the first number / word in a VIN represents the country of origin of the vehicle; The second letter / number represents the manufacturer.
Decoding the VIN is a simple way to prevent you from being fooled or failed to buy a car, especially an old car, such as a Mustang built into a special edition Cobra, or buying a damaged vehicle. heavy. TrangDriverSide.com has instructions on how to find and read the VIN of a car as follows:
Step 1: Find the VIN
Most new cars have a VIN located just below the lower edge of the front windshield and can often be seen through a small transparent box in the colored area at the base of the glass (as shown below).
Depending on the year and price of the vehicle, the form of the VIN may vary: it can be beautifully embossed on an aluminum piece, or simply on a cheap piece of plastic. However, the value of the information it carries is the same and is fastened with rivets so it is hard to be swapped. Special editions or expensive sports cars often have VINs on the door sill or dashboard.
Once you've found your VIN, start exploring the information it has!
2 step: Analysis of VIN
As you can see in the illustration below, the VIN includes 6 parts:
Model / Place of manufacture: (Numbers / letters from 1-3) showing the place of manufacture, model and manufacturer of vehicle.
Vehicle characteristics: (Numbers / letters 4-8) These letters / numbers define some identifiable characteristics of the vehicle - equipment, engines, ...
Verification number: (9 number) Determined through a complex mathematical formula involving other numbers in the VIN, used to determine whether the VIN itself is real or fake.
Version: (Issue 10) Shows the year of manufacture, not the year of sale or delivery to the customer.
Assembly plant: (11 No.) A manufacturer's internal number showing where the vehicle was assembled.
Manufacturing order of vehicles: (Numbers from 12-17) These numbers represent the order in which the vehicle leaves the production line. This is usually the vehicle serial number.
Note: Some VINs will never have the letters I, O, or Q because they look too similar to the numbers "1" and "0".
3 step: Decode the place of production
We will use the number VIN 1ZVHT82H485113456 in the illustration above as an example of analysis. We won't say which car it is, but you'll know more after analyzing the final number.
First, find out who made this car. The cluster of digits that is decoded here is 1ZV.
The first number is always the country of manufacture. There are many country codes, but the most basic are the following:
- America: 1, 4 or 5
Canada: 2
Mexico: 3
- Japan: J
- Korea: K
- Brother: S
- Germany: W
- Italy: Z
- Sweden: Y
Australia: 6
- France: V
Brazil: 9
Looking at the VIN, you can tell whether it is an American car or a foreign car made in the US.
The next two digits / digits represent the manufacturer. This first 3-digit cluster is called "World Manufacturer Identifier" (WMI), specifically representing the manufacturer, not simply "F" for Ford or "G ”For GM. For example, “1GC” represents Chevrolet pickup, while “1G1” represents Chevrolet passenger car. You can refer to the list of popular WMI manufacturers here.
With the phrase "1ZV", it is the code of AutoAlliance International (1YV or 1ZV), a company specializing in manufacturing vehicles for both Mazda and Ford. This means the vehicle in question may be a Ford or Mazda car.
4 step: Determine the characteristics of the vehicle
Not only tells us the name of the vehicle, the manufacturer, the VIN also shows the type of engine and the platform of the vehicle. It is information contained in the 2 th heading of the VIN (5 code from 4 to 8). Each country and each company has its own way of making this number. Most auto sales companies in North America share this sequence of numbers. Knowing that the car has the VIN number is from Ford or Mazda, quite easy to decode the cluster.
The first H is a safety code, indicating the car has front airbags and side airbags. Other letters such as "B" for vehicles with an active seat belt but without airbags; The letters "L" and "F" or "K" represent the different generations of airbags.
The letters and numbers from 5 to 7, in this case T82, indicate the type of vehicle. Looking at the VIN list of Ford, we know that Ford uses the code "T8_" for the Mustang coupe. More specifically, it's Mustang Bullitt, Coupe GT or Coupe Shelby GT. If someone wants to sell you a Mustang and claim it's a hardtop GT, but the VIN has the T80 code then they're lying.
The most important word, if you want to identify the engine type of the vehicle, is the 8 letter. In this case, the letter H indicates that we have a vehicle with Ford's V8 4.6L engine. If this character is "N", then the V6 engine. If it's an "S", that's exactly the Mustang Coupe Shelby GT.
5 step: Verification number
Most companies use the 9 number as a verification number.
To find out the VIN verification number, first, it is attributed to each letter corresponding to a certain number, specifically as follows:
A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, D = 4, E = 5, F = 6, G = 7, H = 8,
J = 1, K = 2, L = 3, M = 4, N = 5, O = 6, P = 7, R = 9,
S = 2, T = 3, U = 4, V = 5, W = 6, X = 7, Y = 8, Z = 9
Note that only convert numbers into numbers for calculation, and the numbers remain the same. Thus we will have 17 number. The next thing is to multiply each number by the number that represents the value of that digit in the VIN. The number denoting the value is as follows:
After multiplying each number in the VIN series (except the 9 number) by the corresponding number, adding and dividing by 11, the balance will be a verification number. If the result is 10, the verification number will be "X".
Try doing the calculation with the above VIN: 1ZVHT82H485113456
After converting the letters, we have the sequence: 19583828485113456
Corresponding multiplier: 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 10 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Result: (1 x 8) + (9 x 7) + (5 x 6) + (8 x 5) + (3 x 4) + (8 x 3) + (2 x 2) + (8 x 10) + (8 x 9) + (5 x 8) + (1 x 7) + (1 x 6) + (3 x 5) + (4 x 4) + (5 x 3) + (6 x 2) = 444
Take the division of 444 and divide it by the number of even 11, the remainder is 40. And that is the verification number.
So in this case, the VIN is correct, not fake.
If you are afraid of calculation and afraid of confusion, you only need to convert the letters of the VIN to a new sequence, then use the online tool to check here.
6 step: Determine the version
Since the year 1980, different countries have used different vehicle model regulations. However, there is still a common formula applied by most companies to the 10 number. If the vehicle is manufactured during the period from 2001 to 2009, the corresponding number will be from 1 to 9. In the above VIN series, the number of 10 is the number "8", so that is the model year of 2008.
If the vehicle to be verified is manufactured from the year 1980 to 2000, the conversion code is a letter from A to Y, of course except for I, O and Q, with the same reason as stated in Step 2. For example, cars manufactured in the year 1994 will have the code "R", and cars manufactured from the year 2000 will have a code Y. From the year of 2010, most car manufacturers will return from the code "A".
7 step: Determining the place of manufacture of the vehicle
The 11 reference number is used to determine the vehicle's manufacturing location. There is no standard for this number, so you need to consult the VIN list as well as the car factories and manufacturing facilities. The lists are quite fully updated on the Wikipedia page. For example, here we have a list of Ford factories. Looking up the list, we can see the number of 5 in the VIN range for AutoAlliance factory in Flat Rock, Michigan, USA.
8 step: The serial number of the vehicle on the production line
The last 6 in the VIN sequence indicates the serial number of the vehicle on the production line. In the case of the Mustang being reviewed here, that number is 113456.
The problem now is that there are a number of companies that produce a sample in quantities that exceed the limit of 6 digits. However, that number is not much. In addition, for most car owners, this number is not so important. For some special models, such as the limited-edition Corvette, the last edition of the 6 group will indicate the limited number of cars produced as announced by the automaker.
9 step: Compare what VIN shows with the car you are considering
In this case, the VIN analysis results show that this is a 2008 Ford Mustang Bullitt, and indeed it is!
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