SEAT VIN decoder

SEAT VINs start with

SEAT uses one manufacturer code, on vehicles built in Spain.

This make is not sold in the US, so NHTSA does not list it. The code is the one the manufacturer stamps under ISO 3780.

How to read a VIN

Every car built since 1981 carries a 17-character vehicle identification number. It is not random: each part answers a question about the vehicle.

• 1-3

  World manufacturer identifier (1 to 3)

  Who built the vehicle, and in which country. The first character is the region: 1, 4 and 5 for the United States, 2 for Canada, 3 for Mexico, J for Japan, K for Korea, W for Germany, V for France and Spain.

• 4-8

  Vehicle descriptor (4 to 8)

  The model, body, engine and restraint systems, coded the way each manufacturer chooses. This is the part a decoder needs the manufacturer's own data to read.

• 9

  Check digit (9)

  Worked out from the other sixteen characters, so a misread or mistyped VIN shows up at once. Mandatory in North America, often unused elsewhere.

• 10

  Model year (10)

  One character per year: letters for 1980 to 2000 and again from 2010, digits for 2001 to 2009 and again from 2031. The table below gives every code.

• 11

  Assembly plant (11)

  The factory the vehicle came out of. Each manufacturer keeps its own list.

• 12-17

  Serial number (12 to 17)

  The vehicle's own production number, the part that sets this VIN apart from every other car of the same model.

Model year codes

The tenth character gives the model year. The same thirty codes come round every thirty years, so each code stands for two possible years.

On North American vehicles the seventh character tells the two apart: a letter there means 2010 or later, a digit means 2009 or earlier. Outside North America the year code is optional and often missing.