VIN Basics Blog

Online quotes have revolutionized the world of car insurance. It has made insurance more competitive because users can get multiple quotes from different carriers quickly. This has created an environment where consumers shop to find the best price possible, and may do so as frequently as once or twice a year. This results in a consistent demand for online quote both from the insurers directly and well as from third party sites that provide quote comparison tools.

Never before have there been more ways for auto dealers to market inventory to customers - who are able to take advantage of unprecedented availability of vehicle data and methods of comparison shopping.

Like an individual fingerprint unique to each person, the Vehicle Identification Number is unique to each individual vehicle. And, just like the federal government maintains a database of fingerprints in order to access information on individuals registered in the system quickly and accurately, a VIN database can also access a wealth of information on each vehicle in the system in a quick, organized, and easy manner. With the high-tech, user-friendly VIN decoder software available on the market today, there’s no reason not to install and utilize a VIN decoding solution as part of your business process. In fact, a VIN database or VIN decoder application solution is essential to maximizing efficiency and profits and can be used to help position your service-oriented transportation business miles ahead of the competition.

Since 1981 the global vehicle manufacturing community has used the 17 digit VIN as a means to uniquely identify a vehicle.  The VIN captures basic vehicle information as part of an international standard, and in some countries, like the US, it is used to capture additional data.   In the US, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, is tasked with regulating the information the VIN must capture, how it is assigned and to whom.  Some of the many benefits of the VIN system include being able to identify and recall vehicles with safety issues, track vehicles accident and maintenance history, and identify vehicles that have been stolen.

If you're having trouble decoding vehicles in your inventory, consider this list of errors and challenges commonly faced when working with Vehicle Identification Numbers.

US and Canadian VINS are required to contain a certain level of information about the vehicle, including year, make, model, body style, engine, restraint system, and GVWR. However, a lot of important vehicle details are encoded in the VIN by some OEMs, and not by others. Working with VIN data can be tricky business when they're used in different ways by the 40+ US passenger vehicle makes. This article explains a few key concepts related to VIN decoding and something called style matching, that are critical to working with VIN data successfully.

VIN Decoding 101:  Part 2

What's in the VIN?

As we discussed in the preceding article, What is a VIN, there are two ISO documents that established the 17 digit VIN standard and the WMI section of the VIN. However, these documents were only recommendations. The VIN standard created by the NHTSA and enforced starting with the model year (MY) 1981, was required of all vehicles manufactured for use in the US and was much more stringent in its requirements.

Automotive VIN Data Primer

As a data company we come across many variations on needs from our Clients for VIN decoding. In the marketing segment, the term is used very loosely to describe data collections with a tremendous amount of information that can be queried by VIN.. but what is VIN decoding really?