A vehicle's chassis number has the same role as a person's ID number. It consists of a string of 17 numbers and letters without spaces. For example:
The vehicle chassis number has the same role as a person's registration number. It contains a series of 17 numbers and letters without spaces. For example:
WAUZZZ4BZWN049194
It is also referred to by the acronym VIN – "Vehicle identification number", in translation vehicle identification number.
In our documents it is called "Vehicle Identification Number", "Vehicle ID Number", and is also used as "Vehicle ID Number – VIN".
Our regulations state that the chassis number is:
"Vehicle Identification Number (Vehicle ID Number - VIN) is a unique and unambiguous alphanumeric code that the manufacturer assigns to the vehicle to ensure proper vehicle identification and which can consist of Arabic digits from 0-9 and all uppercase letters of the English alphabet except I, O and Q;"
Where on the registration certificate can the chassis number be read?
The chassis number is located on the back of the registration certificate under the letter E.
Where is the chassis number located on the car?
It must be located in several places. It is easiest to find it somewhere in the engine compartment, such as on the shock absorber mount, the fender, the partition profile between the engine and the cabin...
But it is also located in some other places, such as on the floor or side of the trunk, under the spare wheel in the trunk, on the floor of the driver's, passenger's or rear...
In these other places, it can be well hidden under the carpet, some plastic and the like, so it is often difficult or impossible to find it if you do not know where to look.
Also, in more modern cars, the chassis number, or VIN, has started to be placed at the bottom of the windshield on the inside of the driver's side, so it can be very easily seen from the outside. However, this is not mandatory for all cars, and some owners want to hide it.
What if I can't find the VIN in places outside the engine compartment?
You can contact a service center, authorized or unauthorized. The authorized one definitely needs to know.
Fortunately, the problems with the chassis number are not even close to the troubles with the engine number, which can often be a real agony to find.
How can I find out the year of the car based on the chassis number?
This is precisely the item that interests the largest number of potential buyers who are worried about not being cheated. Unfortunately, there are two problems here that can cause various inconveniences, since the buyer may suspect that the seller is trying to deceive him, when in fact the car is 100% legal.
Almost everywhere you look for an answer to this question, you will find out that the tenth digit in the chassis number indicates the year of manufacture.
However, the problem is that this is mandatory only according to the American standard, and not according to the European one, although many European manufacturers follow the American standard.
Therefore, European car manufacturers may or may not put the year of manufacture, or model year, as the tenth digit. Therefore, it is easy to get into a situation where the buyer comes to look at the car and concludes based on the tenth digit that the car was manufactured in 2003, while the seller claims that the vehicle is a 2007 model year.
In Europe, the standard “ISO Standard 3779” is followed, which does not require the year of manufacture or model year to be specified, but leaves that option open.
There is also the problem of the model year not being the same as the calendar year of manufacture. Namely, even when manufacturers put a year designation in the VIN, it is actually a model year that does not have to coincide with the calendar year. Namely, a car can be manufactured in November 2020, and the designation for 2021 is entered in the chassis number.
The model year is usually calculated from August 1 to July 31, but there are differences between manufacturers, so this is not a mandatory period.
So don’t be surprised if you determine from the chassis number that the car was manufactured in one year, and the documents say that it was manufactured in the following year. It’s simply a matter of that model year.
What numbers and letters must not be used?
They must not be used:
O
Q
I
The reason why these three letters are not used is to prevent the possibility of being confused with the numbers 0 and 1. So, if the chassis number is dirty, rusty or for some other reason you cannot see it well, and you are not sure whether a mark is O, Q or 0 - know that it is zero since the first two marks are not used.
What are the model year marks?
In the table below you can see the marks that tell us the model year of the vehicle.
What else can I find out from the chassis number?
You can find out a lot, the only problem is that you have to know how to "read" it, that is, to enter the manufacturer's database.
Manufacturers follow international/European standards in a certain part, and in another part they have their own marking system, which they can also change whenever and however they want.
Explanation of chassis number markings
We will take the chassis number, i.e. VIN of an Audi, as an example. It looks like this:
WAUZZZ4BZWN049087
Now we will “disassemble” it and explain it part by part:
First 3 codes: WAUZZZ4BZWN049087 – the global manufacturer code (in this case Audi). This code can also be used to identify the country or region where the car was manufactured/assembled.
4th to 9th codes: WAUZZZ4BZ WN049087 – general vehicle characteristics, determined by the manufacturer at its own discretion (body type, drive, fuel, model, etc.)
10th code: WAUZZZ4BZWN049087 – usually the model year, but not necessarily. Also, if it indicates a model year, we have already explained that it does not necessarily have to be the exact, or calendar, year of production.
For example, a car can be manufactured in the last few months of the calendar year 2020, and be marked as a model year 2021. We have already explained this in the above text.
From the 11th to the 17th code: WAUZZZ4BZWN049087 – the serial number of the car, which can contain various information at the manufacturer's discretion.
When is it mandatory to know the chassis number?
Modern cars are much more likely to undergo various modifications during the life of that model, so it can be extremely complicated or simply impossible to find a part for your vehicle, since even the store does not know whether you need an older or newer version of a certain spare/consumable part.
That is why it is safest to enter the VIN of your car into the database and find the appropriate part based on it.
Two more differences compared to the American standard
These two items are not really important to drivers, but we will mention them because they are stated incorrectly in many places. According to the European standard, the VIN, or chassis number, does not have to have a mark for the factory where the car was manufactured, and the ninth digit is not a control mark either, but the manufacturer can use it to indicate whatever he wants.
Applications for checking vehicles via chassis number
There are many websites, applications and various other "tools" for checking vehicles via chassis number. Some may be useful, but it all depends on how old the car is, what country it was imported from, what was entered into the database...
For example, some will make you pay to find out just what equipment the car had from the factory. Others promise to let you check if the car has been damaged.
