The 17-digit VIN number is made up of a series of letters and characters, which have the following meaning:

• The first three letters are the ‘World Manufacturer Identifiers’, which explain where the car was made, the brand, and the type of vehicle (for example, A is for passenger cars).

• The fourth to eighth characters (made up of letters and numbers) describe the vehicle, namely the engine type, restraint system (i.e. the safety mechanisms designed to protect occupants in the event of an accident), the engine code, transmission type, and the model of car.

• The ninth character is called a ‘check digit’ which helps detect invalid or forged VINs.

• The tenth character (a letter), applicable to cars from 1981 onwards, stands for the car’s model year. The letter ‘S’ denotes 2025, for example.

A VIN-to-Year chart can be found here.

• The eleventh letter describes the location of the factory which built the car.

• The twelfth to seventeenth characters of the VIN are the production sequence numbers that are unique to the vehicle.