Probing Into The Letters And Numbers Shown By The VIN Lookup Tool 

When you enter the 17-digit Vehicle identification Number into a decoder such as VIN lookup, it will show a series of numbers and letters. Each of these numbers and letters denote different meaning and indicates different aspects of your car. For example, when the decoder shows you numbers 1, 4 or 5, it indicates that the car is made in the United States. Similarly, 2 stands for Canada and 3 for Mexico. On the other hand, Japan is denoted by the letter J, K denotes South Korea, W indicates Germany, S stands for England and Y indicates Sweden or Finland.

Names of manufacturers

In some cases, the decoder may also show letters other than those mentioned above. Do not get confused looking at these letters because these letters indicate the names of the manufacturers of the car. Ideally, the letters shown are the first letter of the name of the vehicle manufacturers. For example, the letter A stands for Audi, B indicates BMW, and G is dedicated to General Motors. Similarly, the letter L is for Lincoln and N stands for Nissan. However, the letter A can be a bit confusing because it may also stand for specific vehicle types such as a Jaguar or Mitsubishi and R may also mean Audi. 

Next six digits

The next six digits, position 4 to 9 of the VIN will clear away all your doubts and confusion by tying everything together. This is the specific part that is dedicated for the VDS or the Vehicle Descriptor Section. The numbers 4 to 8 describe the model of the car, the type of its body, the transmission type of the engine, the restraint system, as well as the engine code. On the other hand, the number 9 is typically the check digit that you can use to detect whether or not the VIN itself is invalid.