Find your car's date of manufacture (VIN)

How do you know that your dealer isn't selling you a 6 month old car, under the guise of a new one? Or worse still, a car that's over a year old? Knowing when your car was manufactured is critical; after all, when you have paid good money for a brand new car, shouldn't you be getting just that? Automotive manufactures around the world use a Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) that can be decoded to reveal the Month & Year of production. Each car has a unique VIN that is usually stamped somewhere within the engine bay, or around the passenger compartment. Team-BHP shows you how to decode the VIN of your car. Simply scroll down to the manufacturer-specific posts and follow the instructions therein. NOTE : An excel sheet containing the location of engine / chassis numbers (on various vehicles) can be found here. Refer to the chart below to directly jump to the respective manufacturer's VIN decoding instructions:

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Manufacturer Tata Motors Chevrolet Honda Mahindra Mitsubishi Hyundai Fiat Skoda Volkswagen Toyota Maruti Suzuki Ford

Manufacturer: Tata Motors VIN Characters: 17 (beginning with MAT...) Decode: 10th character represents the YEAR of Manufacture 12th character represents the MONTH of Manufacture

An Example: If your 10th VIN character is A, then it represents the Year - 2010 If your 12th VIN character is G, then it represents the Month - July Month Codes: A = JAN B = FEB C = MAR D = APR E = MAY F = JUN G = JUL H = AUG J = SEP K = OCT

L = NOV M = DEC Year Codes: A = 2010 B = 2011 C = 2012 D = 2013 E = 2014 F = 2015 G = 2016 H = 2017 J = 2018 K = 2019 P.S. The letters "I", "O" and "Q" are never used in a VIN. Manufacturer: Chevrolet VIN Characters: 17 (beginning with MA6...) Decode: 9th character represents the MONTH of Manufacture 10th character represents the YEAR of Manufacture

An Example: If your 9th VIN character is G, then it represents the Month - July If your 10th VIN character is A, then it represents the Year - 2010 Month Codes: A = JAN B = FEB C = MAR D = APR E = MAY F = JUN G = JUL

H = AUG J = SEP K = OCT L = NOV M = DEC Year Codes: A = 2010 B = 2011 C = 2012 D = 2013 E = 2014 F = 2015 G = 2016 H = 2017 J = 2018 K = 2019 NOTE: Its been confirmed that effective from February 2011, there is a change in the Month code position of Chevrolet VIN. 7th Character now represents Month 10th Character is Year. For e.g if your 7th Character is G then its July. Additionally, you can find a separate placard near the front left door, right bottom (near seat) that has 2 characters representing MONTH and YEAR. For e.g GB = July 2011. Full credit goes to fellow members Torquedo, keyur and Poitive for the findings. Manufacturer: Honda VIN Characters: 17 (beginning with MAK...) Decode: 9th character represents the MONTH of Manufacture 10th character represents the YEAR of Manufacture

An Example: If your 9th VIN character is G, then it represents the Month - July If your 10th VIN character is A, then it represents the Year - 2010 Month Codes: A = JAN B = FEB C = MAR D = APR E = MAY F = JUN G = JUL H = AUG J = SEP K = OCT L = NOV M = DEC Year Codes: A = 2010 B = 2011 C = 2012 D = 2013 E = 2014 F = 2015 G = 2016 H = 2017 J = 2018 K = 2019 Manufacturer: Mahindra VIN Characters: 17 (beginning with MAI...) Decode: 10th character represents the YEAR of Manufacture

12th character represents the MONTH of Manufacture

An Example: If your 10th VIN character is A, then it represents the Year - 2010 If your 12th VIN character is G, then it represents the Month - July Month Codes: A = JAN B = FEB C = MAR D = APR E = MAY F = JUN G = JUL H = AUG J = SEP K = OCT L = NOV M = DEC Year Codes: A = 2010 B = 2011 C = 2012 D = 2013 E = 2014 F = 2015 G = 2016 H = 2017 J = 2018 K = 2019 NOTE: Here's some more info from SPIKE ARRESTOR. Thanks! The VIN code for mahindra vehicles consists of 17 digits, which is divided mainly into 3 sections.

1. first section containing 3 digits which give details of Manufacturer code. 2. second section containing 6 digits which give details of general characteristics of the vehicle 3. third section containing 8 digits which give details of particular vehicle identification. Now the details of all the 17 digits Digit 1- Continent code ( M means Asia) Digit 2- Country code (A means India) Digit 3- Manufacturers code for MnM (1 means Mahindra) Digit 4,5-Vehicle code for RHD,LHD Digit 6- 4WD or 2WD (4 means 4WD and 2 means 2WD) Digit 7,8- Engine code (Different codes for MDI and NEF) Digit9- Transmission code (N for NGT 530R and L for NGT530) Digit 10- Year code (2 for 2001, 3 for 2002 and so on) Digit 11- Plant location (1 for Kandivali, 2 for Nasik, 3 for Zaheerabad) Digit 12- Month code (A for January, B for Feb and so on) Digit 13-17- Vehicle Serial No. Manufacturer: Mitsubishi VIN Characters: 17 (beginning with MA7...) Decode: 10th character represents the YEAR of Manufacture 11th character represents the MONTH of Manufacture

An Example: If your 10th VIN character is A, then it represents the Year - 2010 If your 11th VIN character is G, then it represents the Month - July Month Codes: A = JAN B = FEB C = MAR D = APR E = MAY F = JUN

G = JUL H = AUG J = SEP K = OCT L = NOV M = DEC Year Codes: A = 2010 B = 2011 C = 2012 D = 2013 E = 2014 F = 2015 G = 2016 H = 2017 J = 2018 K = 2019 Manufacturer: Hyundai VIN Characters: 19 (beginning with MAL...) Decode: 10th character represents the YEAR of Manufacture 19th character represents the MONTH of Manufacture

An Example: If your 10th VIN character is A, then it represents the Year - 2010 If your 19th VIN character is G, then it represents the Month - July Month Codes: A = JAN B = FEB C = MAR D = APR

E = MAY F = JUN G = JUL H = AUG J = SEP K = OCT L = NOV M = DEC Year Codes: A = 2010 B = 2011 C = 2012 D = 2013 E = 2014 F = 2015 G = 2016 H = 2017 J = 2018 K = 2019 Manufacturer: Fiat VIN Characters: 20 (beginning with MCA...) Decode: 18th character represents the MONTH of Manufacture 19th & 20th character represents the YEAR of Manufacture

An Example: If your 18th VIN character is G, then it represents the Month - July If your 19th & 20th VIN character is NZ, then it represents the Year - 2010 Month Codes: A = JAN B = FEB

C = MAR D = APR E = MAY F = JUN G = JUL H = AUG J = SEP K = OCT L = NOV M = DEC Year Codes: LZ= 2012 MZ = 2011 NZ = 2010 QZ & PZ = 2009 Manufacturer: Skoda VIN Characters: 17 (beginning with TMB...) Decode: 6th character represents the MONTH of Manufacture 10th character represents the YEAR of Manufacture

An Example: If your 6th VIN character is G, then it represents the Month - July If your 10th VIN character is A, then it represents the Year - 2010 Month Codes: A = JAN B = FEB C = MAR D = APR E = MAY F = JUN

G = JUL H = AUG J = SEP K = OCT L = NOV M = DEC Year Codes: A = 2010 B = 2011 C = 2012 D = 2013 E = 2014 F = 2015 G = 2016 H = 2017 J = 2018 K = 2019 Manufacturer: Volkswagen VIN Characters: 17 (beginning with WVW...) Decode: 4th character represents the MONTH of Manufacture 10th character represents the YEAR of Manufacture

An Example: If your 4th VIN character is G, then it represents the Month - July If your 10th VIN character is B, then it represents the Year - 2011 Month Codes: A = JAN B = FEB C = MAR D = APR

E = MAY F = JUN G = JUL H = AUG J = SEP K = OCT L = NOV M = DEC Year Codes: A = 2010 B = 2011 C = 2012 D = 2013 E = 2014 F = 2015 G = 2016 H = 2017 J = 2018 K = 2019 Manufacturer: Toyota VIN Characters: 22 (beginning with MBJ...) Decode: 19th & 20th character represents the MONTH of Manufacture 21st & 22nd character represents the YEAR of Manufacture An Example: If your 19th & 20th VIN characters are 0 & 5, then it represents the Month - May If your 21st & 22nd VIN characters are 0 & 8, then it represents the Year - 2008

Manufacturer: Maruti VIN Characters: 21 (beginning mostly with MA3...) Decode: 20th character represents the MONTH of Manufacture 21th character represents the YEAR of Manufacture

An Example: If your 20th VIN character is L, then it represents the Month - November If your 10th VIN character is 6, then it represents the Year - 2006 Month Codes: A = JAN B = FEB C = MAR D = APR E = MAY F = JUN G = JUL H = AUG J = SEP K = OCT L = NOV M = DEC Year Codes: B=2011 A=2010

9=2009 8=2008 7=2007 6=2006 5=2005

Manufacturer: Ford VIN Characters: 17 (beginning mostly with MAJ...) Ford India uses a pattern which repeats every 4 years. That means the 2005-2008 pattern repeats for 2009-2012 (and so on).

Decode: (Use the chart below for reference) 11th character represents the YEAR of Manufacture 12th character represents the MONTH of Manufacture An Example: If your 11th VIN character is 7, then it represents the Year - 2007 If your 12th VIN character is K, then it represents the Month - February

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