As seen on:

SMH Logo News Logo

Call 1300 303 181

Where is your car made

Last month we revealed, amongst much consternation from our readers, that manufacturers and importers are not legally bound to state where a car is made.

We then conducted a short quiz on origins with some interesting results.

So firstly, let’s look at the findings from the fun quiz then we’ll tell you how you can discover where your car was made – if you know the secret codes!

Quiz Results – Key Findings

  • At the time of writing an amazing 3,924 people took the quiz.
  • The average person answered just 38% of the questions correctly.
  • Congratulations to 112 people who got 100% right
  • Whereas 658 people might be a bit disappointed that they didn’t get a single question correct!

The quiz is still open if you haven’t yet had a go!

NOW I know where that car comes from!

Hey! Just look at your VIN (vehicle identifiation number, it’s on your rego documents and a elsewhere) and you can tell – if you can decipher the secret code.

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 means it’s made in Mexico?

Probably not, until now, that is.

So, to help you out, we have listed below the first two digits for vin numbers and their origin code for some of the major manufacturing countries.

  • 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

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.

If you would like to make a comment on car manufacturer origins on our blog page then please do!

Leave a Reply