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.
Jan 23 2013
Topics: Automotive Data, Marketing, VIN, Safety, Vehicle Valuations
Jan 18 2013
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.
Read MoreTopics: Logistics, Automotive Data, Vehicle, VIN
Dec 19 2012
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 vehicle's accident and maintenance history, and identify vehicles that have been stolen.
Topics: Automotive Data, VIN, Safety, Powersports
Aug 10 2012
In our VIN Decoding 101 series of articles, we have focused on which vehicles are required to have 17-digit VIN numbers assigned and what data is and is not captured within the VIN. We have seen that country of sale, vehicle segment and type, model year, and manufacturer all play a big role in the usefulness of VIN decoding and the type and depth of vehicle details the VIN will encode. For many applications, a basic VIN decode, one that decodes only what is encoded in the VIN, will provide all the details that your business needs. However, there are also many common VIN decoder applications where there is a need and substantial benefits for more detail, as much as possible. How can this need be met?
Topics: VIN
Jul 20 2012
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.
Topics: Vehicle, VIN, Safety, Auto Manufacturers, Automotive
Feb 24 2012
As we explained in our article "VIN-to-Trim/Style Matching Explained", VINs often are not encoded with enough information to determine a single vehicle style. This means that important details such as MSRP, MPG, and certain standard installed equipment may not known based on the VIN alone. If you're working with DMS data, there's a good chance that you have additional, valuable data at your disposal that you can use along with the VIN to decode down to a single vehicle style.
Topics: Automotive Data, VIN
Feb 21 2012
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.
Read MoreTopics: VIN
Jan 12 2012
If you're using an automotive data provider for VIN decoding, you probably have a few vehicles in inventory that your data provider cannot decode. Some of these might be classic cars, vehicles sold in Europe or Asia then imported into the US, Trailers, or other types of vehicles that your data provider simply does not support. However, it's likely that some of these vehicles cannot be decoded because the VIN number is just plain incorrect, usually due to human error when reading the VIN off the vehicle. Fortunately, there are a number of ways to determine a VIN is invalid. You can employ these methods to isolate your invalid VINs and either make automated corrections or go back to the field to get the correct VIN off your vehicle.
Topics: VIN
Jan 11 2012
If you were alive in the late 1980s or early 1990s and heard mention of the spaghetti sauce brand "Prego," you almost certainly will think of their catchphrase "It's in there!" No matter what desired ingredient was asked about in Prego's TV ads, the response was, of course, "It's in there!"
We often have potential customers approach us hoping to determine a specific detail or attribute of the vehicle using only the vehicle identification number (VIN). Decoding a VIN can return a large amount of useful information. However, there are still many vehicle details that can't be determined from a basic decode of the VIN pattern alone. In other words, they are not all in there.
Read MoreTopics: VIN
Jan 10 2012
If you have read any of our other articles on VIN decoding you know already that the VIN pattern has certain information that it is required to contain in the US and Canada. However, if you acquire and review a VIN file, like VIN Basic, you will come across exceptions to even these basic rules. Here are a couple of VIN rule exceptions that have led to questions from our customers in the past.
Topics: Support, Automotive Data, VIN
