VIN anatomy
Seven explainers on how the 17 characters of a VIN are built, each with counts and charts computed from NHTSA's October 2026 catalog.
- What the first three characters of a VIN tell you
How the World Manufacturer Identifier works: what each of the first three VIN characters means, with counts from NHTSA's catalog.
- How the VIN check digit is calculated
The ninth VIN character step by step: letter values, position weights and the divide-by-11 rule, with a full worked example.
- Reading the model year from a VIN
Position 10 of a VIN encodes the model year in a 30-year cycle. The full code table, the position 7 rule and how many codes cover each year.
- Small manufacturers and the 9 in position 3
Why some VINs carry a 9 in position 3: six-character manufacturer codes for small builders, counted by type, country and year.
- Which countries hold the most VIN prefixes
VIN prefixes counted by country in NHTSA's catalog: the United States leads, then China, Canada, Mexico, Japan and Germany.
- Why one automaker holds dozens of VIN prefixes
General Motors holds 108 WMIs. How vehicle types, brands and subsidiaries multiply manufacturer codes, with counts from NHTSA.
- How many new VIN prefixes NHTSA adds each year
New World Manufacturer Identifiers added to NHTSA's catalog per year since 2016, by code length and vehicle type, and the latest ones.