A Vehicle Identification Number, commonly abbreviated to VIN, is a unique serial number used by the automotive industry to identify individual motor vehicles, towed vehicles, motorcycles and mopeds as defined in ISO 3833. VINs were first used in 1954. From 1954 to 1981, there was no accepted standard for these numbers, so different manufacturers used different formats.
In 1981, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of the United States standardized the format. It required all over-the-road-vehicles sold to contain a 17-character VIN, which does not include the letters I (i), O (o), or Q (q) (to avoid confusion with numerals 1 and 0).
There are vehicle history services in several countries that can help potential car owners use VINs to find lemons and branded vehicles. See the used car article for a list of countries where this service is available.
Read more about Vehicle Identification Number: VIN: Classification, Components of The VIN, Check Digit Calculation
Famous quotes containing the words vehicle and/or number:
“You utilitarians, you too love everything useful only as a vehicle of your inclinations—you too really find the noise of its wheels intolerable?”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Take away from the courts, if it could be taken away, the power to issue injunctions in labor disputes, and it would create a privileged class among the laborers and save the lawless among their number from a most needful remedy available to all men for the protection of their business interests against unlawful invasion.... The secondary boycott is an instrument of tyranny, and ought not to be made legitimate.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)