We have said that manufacturers are not required to state the country of origin for vehicles sold in Australia.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Whilst some carmakers do put the name of the country that made the car on the plate, it is not compulsory.<\/p>\n
Still our blogger is, in fact, technically correct!<\/p>\n
You see, the first two letters of the VIN number do denote the manufacturing location.<\/p>\n
But if the vin starts with ‘SA’ would you know that it is made in the UK?<\/p>\n
Or 3A Mexico?<\/p>\n
Probably not, until now, that is.<\/p>\n
We have listed below the first two digits for vin numbers and their origin code for some of the major manufacturing countries.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
VA through VE – Austria<\/span><\/p>\n 6A through 6W – Australia<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n YA through YE – Belgium<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 9A through 9E – Brazil<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 2A through 2O – Canada<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n LA through LO – China<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n YF through YK – Finland<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n VF through VR – France<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n SN through ST – Germany<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n WA through WO – Germany<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n TR through TV – Hungary<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n ZA through ZR – Italy<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n JA through JO – Japan<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n PL through PR – Malaysia<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 3A through 3W – Mexico<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n XL through XR – Netherlands<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n SU through SZ – Poland<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n U5 through U7 – Slovak Republic<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n AA through AH – South Africa<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n KL through KR – South Korea<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n VS through VW – Spain<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n YS through YW – Sweden<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n ML through MR – Thailand<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n NL through NR – Turkey<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n