VIN (Vehicle Identification Number)
The 17-character serial number assigned to every modern motor vehicle.
A Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) is the 17-character alphanumeric code assigned to every road-going motor vehicle built or sold since 1981. The VIN is the closest thing a car has to a fingerprint — no two vehicles share one, and the encoding follows the international ISO 3779 standard so a VIN issued by Toyota in Japan can be parsed the same way as one issued by Ford in Michigan.
The 17 characters break into three structural sections: the first three (WMI) identify the manufacturer and country of origin, the next six (VDS) describe the model and body style with manufacturer-specific encoding, and the final eight (VIS) include the model year, plant code and a six-digit production sequence number. Position 9 carries a check digit on US- and China-spec VINs that lets a parser verify the rest of the string mathematically.
Letters I, O and Q are never used inside a VIN to avoid visual confusion with the digits 1, 0 and Q-shaped characters. If a VIN you’ve been quoted contains any of those letters, it’s either mistyped or fabricated.