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Use the first character to discover the continent of manufacture. Use the first two characters to narrow it down to country and manufacturer. Use the tenth character to determine the model year.
You can skip straight to the next step to find which country it is made in, but this basic information is easy to check and remember.  If the first character is an A, B, C, D, E, F, G, or H, the vehicle was made in Africa.  J, K, L, M, N, P, or R as the first character means the vehicle was made in Asia. This includes the Middle East. Note that a VIN never begins with a zero or O due to the ease of confusing these two symbols.  S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, or Z indicate Europe.  1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 indicate North America, including USA, Mexico, and Canada.  6 or 7 indicate Australia or New Zealand. Note that nearby nations such as Indonesia or the Philippines are considered part of Asia for this purpose.  8 or 9 indicate South America. Many vehicles are made in a different country than the one the manufacturing company is located in. Compare the first two characters of the VIN to an online chart like this one, including the first "continent" code described above, and find out where a vehicle was really made. This will also tell you which company made the car. Some companies use the third digit as well to indicate manufacturer or company division. The first two digits should be enough to identify the country and company, however. This method will always work for North American cars, and will often work for cars from other regions. Note that this might be one year later than the car was actually made. A model year of 2008 means the car was probably made either in 2007 or 2008. See below for decoding instructions:  A 10th character which is an A, B, C, D, E, F, G, or H indicate the years 1980 – 1987 in alphabetical order, or the years 2010 – 2017. J, K, L, M, and N are reserved for model years 1988 – 1992, or 2018 – 2022. P means the model year is 1993 or 2023. R, S, and T mean 1994 – 1996 or 2024 – 2026. V, W, X, and Y mean 1997 – 2000 or 2027 – 2030. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 indicate the years 2001 – 2009 or 2031 – 2039. A real VIN never contains the letters I, O, or Q. The year code has additional restrictions, never using the number 0 or the letters U or Z. If you're not sure whether your car is new or old, check the vehicle's 7th character. If this is a number, your vehicle's model year is earlier than 2010. If the 7th character is a letter, the model year is 2010 or later (until 2039).