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When researching the history of a vehicle it is best to know its true origins. Whether you are planning to aquire a Minivan and need to know its background, or you are looking to sell your Mustang and want to provide the most complete information on it to shoppers, it’s important to know where to find this information on the Internet.

Since the turn of the century every vehicle produced that is sold in the US includes an ID called a VIN (Vehicle Identification Number). The VIN decoder contains critical information that acts like a fingerprint for that car or truck. This VIN is always unique to a vehicle.

Prior to 1981 each car maker was allowed to create whatever system they wanted to use to identify their vehicles. Mass confusion ensued over the years with no easy way to determine what vehicle a VIN number represented just by looking at the number. This chaos was altered by an industry standard 17-character VIN format that was released in 1981. In order to read the older formats there are several resources on the Internet, but only Decode This! (http://www.decodethis.com) provides a universal VIN number decoder that will decode all early VINs from one web site.

The current VIN format is divided into several sections that allows certain information to be determined from the identifier. Each manufacturer, for example, is identified by the first few characters. The VIN also includes the model year, engine code, and a six-digit serial number. Together this information makes up the VIN. Again, Decode This! provides a comprehensive modern VIN decoder to allow you to automatically decode this information.

While the VIN includes quite a bit of information it is important to note what it does NOT include. There is no information on the specific optional equipment items installed on an individual vehicle. Since the VIN number is assigned to the car or truck at the start of the assembly line, and the optional equipment items are installed later in the process, the vehicle information number has no data on this optional equipment. This means the VIN can tell you the possible equipment that was available for a particular model year, but it will not be a vehicle history report on a particular vehicle. The original manufacturers have this data in separate databases that they license for use to certain vendors.

VIN decoders such as Decode This! take the VIN number and using a database of information to decode the data contained in that identifier in an easy to read format. Decode This! for example has a detailed database on all the information available for each model year and manufacturer of cars and trucks in the US. You can get a detailed report of the information available for your vehicle.

Other web sites can use this VIN data to provide a way to quickly identify a vehicle. WindowSticker.us (http://www.windowsticker.us), a custom automotive window sticker application, uses the VIN to determine the make, model, and year, as well as what the standard and optional equipment was available for the model year. It also can determine the possible internal and external color choices that were available.

So when you’re looking for information about a vehicle the VIN number is a great way to start the process.