Despite what you may have thought, your Chevrolet’s VIN isn’t a random string of numbers. The digits represent your vehicle’s manufacturer, model year, assembly location, and more. You can find your VIN on the driver’s side of your car’s dashboard or inside the door jamb.
You’ll need your car’s vehicle identification number (VIN) in order to renew your driver’s license or update your registration. But you might be wondering—what do those 17 digits even mean? And why are they so important?
Here to break down your Chevrolet’s VIN digit by digit is car insurance
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Your Chevrolet’s VIN is its vehicle identification number. A car’s VIN is a unique 17-digit code that differentiates it from every other car on the road.
There are several places to find your Chevrolet VIN. They include:
On the driver’s side of your dashboard
Inside the driver’s side door jamb
You’ll almost always be able to locate your Chevy’s VIN in one of these places; however, it’s possible to find your code elsewhere, too. For example, Chevrolet often prints a vehicle’s VIN on the frame of the engine bay, either near the strut tower or firewall.
How to decode a Chevrolet VIN
Your car’s VIN is used by the DMV for a series of car-related services, but what exactly does that 17-digit code mean?
VINs have been used here and there throughout the United States since the 1950s but were only standardized by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in 1981. The NHTSA developed a formula for coming up with a unique 17-digit code for each vehicle in order to identify where the car was manufactured, its make and model, and even the specific plant that assembled the car.
VINs use all 10 numerical digits (0-9), as well as 23 letters to make up the 17-digit code. I, O, and Q are the only letters not used in VIN codes because they are too easily confused with certain numbers.
First position: country of origin
The first three digits of any VIN are known as the vehicle’s world manufacturer identifier (WMI) code. For Chevrolets, the first number indicates the specific country where the vehicle was built.
If your Chevrolet was manufactured in the U.S., the first digit of your VIN will be 1. However, the first digit will be a 2 in Canada, 3 in Mexico, and a K in South Korea. Other countries that manufacture Chevrolet models will have different first digits for their VINs.
Positions 2-3: manufacturer information
The second and third digits of your Chevrolet’s VIN contain identifying manufacturer information. The third digit typically denotes the type of vehicle in question.
For example, GA would be the second and third digits for a Chevy van, while a Chevy van chassis would use GB. A Chevrolet truck, meanwhile, would feature GC as its second and third digits.
Positions 4-8: vehicle-specific information
The next five digits of your Chevy’s VIN indicate vehicle-specific information. This includes information about your vehicle’s brand, engine size, and body type. This five-digit code will help differentiate your vehicle from every other Chevrolet on the road.
MORE: Are Chevrolets expensive to maintain?
Position 9: the VIN check digit
The ninth digit of your Chevrolet’s VIN is a security code that identifies that the VIN has been authorized by the manufacturer. This acts as a “check digit” that stops people from coming up with fraudulent VINs using the NHTSA’s standardized formula.
Position 10: model year
The 10th digit of your Chevy’s VIN indicates the vehicle’s model year. This becomes more difficult as the years go on. Because VINs only use one digit to indicate model year, they often re-use digits that already refer to earlier model years. Note that you will never see the letters U or Z or the number 0 as your VINs 10th digit.
Here’s how the VIN model year codes for the last 20 years break down:
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Position 11: assembly plant
Your car’s 11th digit refers to the specific assembly plant that manufactured the car. Every brand uses its own system for deciding how to differentiate between assembly plants.
Chevrolet has a number of assembly plants in the U.S. and worldwide. Some codes indicate a single plant. For example, if your VIN’s 11th digit is A, then your Chevy was manufactured in Lakewood, Georgia. However, if your 11th digit is B, then your vehicle could have been manufactured in Baltimore, Maryland; Lansing, Michigan; or in Bupyeong, South Korea.
Positions 12-17: vehicle serial number
Your vehicle’s VIN will round out with a six-digit serial number. This number will be completely unique to your Chevy and usually reflects a production sequence number. The final six digits of any VIN are the individual car’s serial number.
How to find affordable Chevrolet insurance
One place you can almost always locate your Chevrolet’s VIN is on your car insurance card. But you won’t need to locate your VIN to save big money on your car insurance
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