I know where that car comes from!
We have said that manufacturers are not required to state the country of origin for vehicles sold in Australia.
One of our bloggers, however, posted a comment saying that you just have to look at the compliance place to see where it comes from.
Whilst some carmakers do put the name of the country that made the car on the plate, it is not compulsory.
Still our blogger is, in fact, technically correct!
You see, the first two letters of the VIN number do denote the manufacturing location.
But if the vin starts with ‘SA’ would you know that it is made in the UK?
Or 3A Mexico?
Probably not, until now, that is.
We have listed below the first two digits for vin numbers and their origin code for some of the major manufacturing countries.
OK, that’s a start, but we don’t think it’s enough. we feel that the actual name of the country of origin should also be clearly written on the vin plate, and it can’t be that difficult as the code is the key.
VA through VE – Austria
6A through 6W – Australia
YA through YE – Belgium
9A through 9E – Brazil
2A through 2O – Canada
LA through LO – China
YF through YK – Finland
VF through VR – France
SN through ST – Germany
WA through WO – Germany
TR through TV – Hungary
ZA through ZR – Italy
JA through JO – Japan
PL through PR – Malaysia
3A through 3W – Mexico
XL through XR – Netherlands
SU through SZ – Poland
U5 through U7 – Slovak Republic
AA through AH – South Africa
KL through KR – South Korea
VS through VW – Spain
YS through YW – Sweden
ML through MR – Thailand
NL through NR – Turkey
SA through SM – United Kingdom
1A through 1O – United States
4A through 4O – United States
5A through 5O – United States
Level 2, 9 Help Street