This post has been republished with updates since its original publish date of November 2011
As you might expect we get a lot of questions about VINs. There is a lot of confusion about what a VIN is, how is it used, what information is captured within it and what is not. In this series we hope to provide a good resource that you can use to educate yourself on Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) and VIN Decoding. The articles will progressively build from very basic and general information about VINs to more detailed and specific aspects of using them and vehicle data in business and technical settings. We hope you find them useful.
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Topics:
Vehicle
This post has been republished with updates since its original publish date in April 2012
The NHTSA standard for VIN assignment is applied to all motorized vehicles, motorcycles, and trailers that travel on the roads, streets and highways of the US. However, the NHTSA has no jurisdiction over recreational vehicles not intended to ever be driven on a street or highway.
These "off-road" recreational vehicles are hugely popular and account for millions of purchases and tens of millions of vehicles in use in the US every year. As a result, there is a need to decode and identify these vehicles for initial sales and marketing efforts, resale, registration, insurance, and taxation.
Are these vehicles able to be VIN decoded using the same principles and decoders used for light-duty and passenger vehicles? The answer is a solid... maybe.
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Topics:
Auto Portals,
Automotive Data,
Vehicle,
VIN,
Powersports
Some of the biggest auto industry news this week I'm sure your familiar with was Toyota's announcement to pull the plug on Scion for the 2017 model year (MY). This is especially surprising to us since they recently released the iA and iM models, which were supported by a great advertising campaign. It turns out that buyers today would prefer Scion's parent brand.
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Topics:
Vehicle
VIN lookup and Year Make Model (YMM) search are both valuable tools for the auto industry. There's a good chance you are already using these search tools internally for business processes, externally for consumers, or even for both purposes.
Though YMM is a great way to conduct a vehicle search --especially if the VIN is not available-- there is much more room for imprecise vehicle details without VIN lookup. And in some cases, YMM search simply cannot give you or your consumers the information needed.
In this article, we've highlighted five advantages VIN lookup offers over YMM search.
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Topics:
Vehicle,
VIN,
Vehicle Equipment
Mobile devices are becoming a standard means of browsing the internet, researching products and services, and making purchases online. According to Global Web Index, 80 percent of internet users own a smartphone and 47 percent own a tablet. With these kinds of statistics, you better believe that your website is receiving a significant amount of its traffic from mobile users - unless you fell subject to the latest Google algorithm update last week.
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Topics:
Mobile,
Vehicle,
Parts & Services,
Insurance,
Automotive,
Dealers
Online quotes have revolutionized the world of car insurance, by providing multiple quotes, quickly, from different carriers. This has created an environment where consumers shop around for the lowest premium possible and may do so as frequently as once or twice a year. As a result, there is a consistent demand for online quoting, both from the insurers directly as well as from third party sites that provide quote comparison tools, and an increase in competition.
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Topics:
Auto Portals,
Automotive Data,
Vehicle,
VIN,
Insurance,
Auto Manufacturers
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.
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Topics:
Logistics,
Automotive Data,
Vehicle,
VIN
After nearly three decades of production, Suzuki has announced its departure from the U.S. automotive market. Suzuki first began manufacturing automobiles for the U.S. market in 1985 and will stop selling automobiles once their current supply runs out. They will however continue to produce motorcycles, ATV’s, and watercraft here in the U.S.
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Topics:
Support,
Auto Portals,
Automotive Data,
Vehicle,
Marketing,
Auto Manufacturers,
Automotive,
Dealers
Since 2006, California has maintained legislature to ban driving and texting. The penalties for being caught texting or otherwise touching or using your phone while driving are steep.
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Topics:
Vehicle,
VIN,
Safety,
Auto Manufacturers,
Automotive
We found an interesting study this morning published by Google which describes consumer automotive shopping behavior in 2011. Some highlights below here as well as a link to Google direct for the full presentation.
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Topics:
Auto Portals,
Fuel Economy,
Automotive Data,
Vehicle,
Marketing,
Safety,
Vehicle Equipment,
Dealers
