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I've been reading through a few articles about the components of a VIN, and I understand that the 10th character is meant to be the year, corresponding to a list like the following: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Vehicle_Identification_Numbers_(VIN_codes)/Model_year

However, I've had a look at a few VINs, some manufactured in South Africa and others manufactured in South Korea or Germany, and it doesn't seem reliable.

Check the following:

  • WBA7C22010G766xxx - BMW manufactured 2017?
  • AFAPXXMJ2PFL78xxx - Ford manufactured 2015
  • AFAEXXMJJE5C03xxx - Mazda manufactured 2005
  • KMHDH41CLCU439xxx - Hyundai manufactured 2012

Would I be making a mistake writing software that determines year of manufacture from a VIN? It seems that some serial numbers take up an extra digit, pushing the year to an earlier position.

Savage
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1 Answers1

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If you look at the wiki page you linked the first line tells you: "The model year is encoded in position 10 of North American VIN codes." So this is only reliable for North American cars and it is.

For the other countries you need to see how their VIN configuration is done. They may follow similar formats or they may not.

narkeleptk
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