Obviously when looking at the history of a vehicle it is very important 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 truck and want to provide the most detailed information on it to shoppers, it’s important to know where to research this information on the Internet.

Since the turn of the century every car and truck produced that is sold in the US and Europe includes an ID called a VIN (Vehicle Identification Number). Each Vehicle Identification Number decoder consists of vital information that acts like a fingerprint for that car or truck. Every vehicle can be identified by its VIN.

Before to 1981 each manufacturer was allowed to create whatever system they wanted to use for their VINs. Mass confusion ensued over the years with no easy way to determine what vehicle a vehicle identification number represented just by looking at the number. This chaos was altered by an industry standard 17-character identifier that was released in 1981. If you want 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 new VIN format is divided into several sections that allow certain information to be gleaned 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. As a whole this code makes up the VIN. Once again, Decode This! provides a complete modern VIN decoder to allow you to effortlessly decode this information.

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

VIN decoders such as Decode This! take the vehicle identification number and using a database of information to decode the data contained in that identifier in an easy to understand 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 sources can use this VIN information to provide a way to quickly identify a vehicle. WindowSticker.us (http://www.windowsticker.us), a custom 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 vehicle identification number is a great way to start the process.