How to tell month from VIN

Use this info if you dont have a VIN Sticker wich would tell you the Production date found on the upper part of your VIN sticker:

The 12th to 17th characters are the actual serial number. It identifies whether the vehicle was the first, the hundredth, or the last vehicle off the manufacturer’s assembly line. It wont necessarily tell you your production date, built will tell you if the VIN falls under a "Recall" or "Campaign" to repair or replace a fault of your vehicle

The first character in the WMI sequence represents the country where the vehicle was manufactured. Countries like the United States (1 or 4), Canada (2) and Mexico (3) are represented by numbers while other countries such as Germany (W), Italy (Z) and Japan (J) are represented by letters.

The second character refers to the manufacturer. The characters can be either letters or numbers. For example: Jaguar (A), Dodge (B), Chrysler (C), Jeep (J), Buick (4), Cadillac (6) or Saturn (8).

The third character represents the vehicle type or manufacturing division.

Vehicle Description Section (VDS) and Check Digit
The vehicle description section consists of five characters (the 4th to 8th characters) which identify everything from the body style, engine type, and braking system to model, series, restraint system, etc. The 9th character is a VIN accuracy check digit which verifies the previous VIN numbers. It is determined by carrying out a mathematical computation developed by the Department of Transportation (DOT).

Vehicle Identification Section (VIS)
The vehicle identification section includes the last eight characters in the VIN number. The numbers identify the model year (10th character) and the assembly plant for the vehicle (11th character). A number or letter may represent the model year. For example: 1998 (W), 2000 (Y), 2007 (7) or 2008 (8).

So, the next time you see that long number printed on your registration papers or stamped across your dashboard, you’ll know how to decode it.

Good Luck!