The Vehicle Identification Number.

In North America the VIN is divided into four sections:

• The first three characters uniquely identify the manufacturer, make, and type of vehicle (with the exception of manufacturers that produce less than 500 vehicles).

• The second section consists of five characters (positions 4-8) and identifies the attributes of the vehicle.
  
  For each type of vehicle, different information is required. For cars, MPV's, and light trucks the first two characters of this section are alphabetic, the third and fourth are numeric, and the fifth alphanumeric.

• The third section consists of a character that is a check digit, calculated over the other 16 characters of the VIN. This character can be numeric or the letter X.

• The fourth section consists of eight characters (positions 10-17). The last five are numeric for cars, MPV's, and light trucks and the last four are numeric for all other vehicles.
  
  The first character represents the vehicle model year; the second character represents the plant of manufacture. The third through eighth characters are a sequential production number (for manufacturers producing more than 500 vehicles per year).