What's a VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) ?

Few people know what it is, but the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) has made the news recently, propelled into the limelight by a massive global recall of faulty Takata airbags.

Tracking down the vehicles fitted with these airbags has become literally a matter of life or death, and the Vehicle Identification Number is the best tool available for vehicle owners concerned they may have a ticking time bomb in the car.

The Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) is essentially a serial number, such as you will find fixed, engraved or stamped on mass-produced consumer items such as computers, home audio and TV, kitchen appliances and whitegoods. In most cars the VIN is found at a particularly strong part of the vehicle's crash structure.

If your car is one of many thousands of the same model type imported and sold in Australia, the VIN is the best way to determine whether the vehicle is subject to recall.

You don't have to memorise the full 17 characters, just write them down and then cross-check against an online database published by the manufacturer or importer of your car.

Why else is the VIN important?

The VIN's primary purpose is to deter theft of vehicles that are 'reborn' and sold to an unsuspecting buyer. In recent years, car companies have taken to stamping the VIN on body panels and etching the VIN on glass – windows and windscreen.

It has become increasingly difficult, as a consequence, to eradicate every instance of a VIN in a car. Previously this could be achieved just by transferring the identification plate from a wreck purchased at a damaged car auction or from a wrecking yard.

If a car is stolen and the thief removes and disposes the registration plates prior to setting the car alight, the VIN is likely the only feature remaining after the fire to identify the car. The VIN is thus like DNA or dental records used to identify a murder victim.

Registration authorities and the respective car companies maintain records of the VIN of each and every car sold and registered in Australia. When investigating police query a registration database for a VIN from a burnt-out car, they can learn immediately the name and address of the registered owner.

Problems arise if the car has been on-sold since it was delivered new, and the registration records haven't been updated correctly – either due to the new owner's address being recorded incorrectly or failing to submit a notice of acquisition.

This is also one of the problems facing the car companies attempting to locate and repair vehicles fitted with Takata airbags. After all this time, many of the cars – indeed most of them – are on their second or third owner.

The VIN is also an important means for car companies and their dealers to keep track of a vehicle's service history.

Where is the VIN located?

On newer vehicles, the VIN is usually visible beneath the windscreen, in the lower corner on the passenger side. It is fixed to the vehicle's cowl and may or may not be partly obscured by a windscreen wiper in the parked position. It may also be hard to see in low light, if the VIN is stamped on a dark metallic plate that blends in with the windscreen's frit (the black enamel bonding material around the edges of the windscreen).

There are other ways of finding the VIN for your car. It's usually stamped on the vehicle's compliance plate and often stamped on another major structural member. The compliance plate is riveted to the car's body (usually the firewall) to indicate the car complies with Australian Design Rules.

Also, the VIN is recorded in the vehicle's service manual. Be aware however: the VIN may have been transcribed by hand in the service manual, and may not be correct.

If the VIN is not displayed under the windscreen, as described above, finding the VIN location in the car is simply a matter of referring to the owners manual. Look up Vehicle Identification Number or VIN and turn to the page referenced, where there will be an explanation and perhaps diagram of the VIN's location.

Here are five examples of VIN location in modern cars:
1. On a front strut tower under the bonnet,
2. On the B-pillar between front and rear doors (visible with the front door open),
3. On a chassis member to which the driver's seat is bolted (lift carpet flap to view),
4. On the rear subframe in the boot, where the spare tyre is stowed,
5. On a front chassis rail (view from front wheel arch)

Who invented the VIN concept?

An ISO VIN is one that complies with the standard first promulgated by the International Standards Organisation (ISO) and adopted in the USA in 1981. Australia adopted the ISO standard for VINs in 1989 and the mandated ADR (Australian Design Rule) is ADR 61/2.
Other standards used around the world include FMVSS 115 for the USA and Canada, and of course ISO 3779, which is the standard applied in Europe.

Why are VINs so long?

With millions of vehicles being built around the world each year, the VIN has to be long and complex by necessity, to account for every possible permutation without duplication.

As is the case throughout the rest of the world, vehicles sold in Australia are all 'labelled' with VINs of 17 alphanumeric characters in length.

This is a VIN for a BMW X2: WBAYH32070EB18??? (? Used for security purposes)

Deconstructing the VIN or 'decoding' it, the first three letters indicate the vehicle was built by BMW, which is based in Germany. The 'W' is specifically a country code. WBA represents BMW (WDB is an identifier for Mercedes-Benz).

These manufacturer identifiers refer to the location of the manufacturer's head office, not the manufacturing plant. So an X5 built in Spartanburg, North Carolina, would still be stamped with a VIN beginning with 'WBA'. That explains why some pick-ups built in Thailand are still labelled with Japanese VIN (starting with 'J') rather than a VIN beginning with 'M' – Thailand's country code.

The fourth to ninth characters in the VIN ('YH3207') describe the X2 in question, using an internal code key known only to BMW. These six characters can be whatever the manufacturer wants them to be, but in this specific instance they likely decode to the X2's specification type: an sDrive20i model of the F39 series, powered by a B48C engine and finished in Mediterranean Blue.

The 10th and 11th characters can mean different things in different markets – everything from check digits to verify the VIN's authenticity through to production plants and year of manufacture.

From the 12th-position through to 17, the characters specify the exact vehicle. In Europe the last four characters must be digits and in the USA the last five characters must be digits.

To put it in DNA terms, the first 11 digits of the VIN may tell you you're a white caucasian male born in 1972, but it's the last six characters that specify you are 'you' – 'optioned up' with curly blonde hair, blue eyes and a gift for being able to taste carbohydrates.

Why can't I find the VIN for my classic car?

If your car was manufactured and sold prior to January 1, 1989, it may not bear an 'ISO' VIN, which has been a legal requirement for all new cars sold in Australia since that time.

Prior to 1989, the VIN was known as the 'chassis number' in Australia. It was typically found stamped on a strong part of the body. Usually the chassis number was stamped somewhere within the engine bay; on the firewall was common. Vehicles with the body mounted on a full chassis often had the chassis number stamped on the chassis itself.

The Australian government will insist individuals or companies importing one or more cars without a recognised ISO VIN must have a 'surrogate' number. Usually this is created by the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development, with a leading manufacturer identifier '6U9' indicating the country of issue ('6' meaning Australia) and the 'manufacturer' – actually the Commonwealth of Australia, which issued the VIN.

Picture courtesy of The Car Spy/Wikimedia Commons