VIN Basics Blog

While the light duty and passenger segments encompass a large portion of the vehicles that one might be looking to VIN decode, it certainly doesn't cover them all.  These additional segments each represent huge markets with large direct and allied business opportunities.  As a result, there is a fair amount of interest in services to VIN decode these vehicles. The good news is that the these vehicles are required to have 17-Digit VINs assigned to them by the NHTSA if their function/purpose includes driving, even intermittently, on public roads. However, they can pose a challenge to decode. The reason is the requirements imposed by the NHTSA are less strict and require less data to be captured.  A brief overview on what you can expect from a VIN decode of these vehicle segments is covered in the sections below.