When was the 17 digit VIN mandated

[Guest]

I did do a search on VIN but never found what I want to verify.

What year did the Federal Government (NHTSA) mandate to the manufacturers that they use the 17 digit Vehicle Identificaton Number?

There seems to be a lot of clues around no one has cited any federal legislation/regulation that specifically says when the requirement
was mandated.

[ptm]

This is what my search turned up. Can't verify its accuracy...

https://vintelligence.polk.com/vintel/help.do

text from link quoted below
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What is a VIN?


Vehicle Identification Numbers (or VIN) have been used since 1954 to describe and identify motor vehicles. From 1954 to 1980, VINs were a free-form of alphanumeric patterns and governed by the individual vehicle manufacturer.

Beginning with the model year 1981, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration required that all vehicles sold for on-the-road use must contain a 17 character VIN. Today, VINs are used to help identify the vehicle for sales, recalls, insurance and recovering stolen vehicle parts.

For more information about VINs, please see the U.S. Department of Transportation's website
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[schinae]

The 10th digit is a a letter, it will identify the model year of the vehicle. Im not sure bceause I dont have my cheat sheet in front of me but I want to say this is good from about 1970 on up. Honda being a real pain because some of them are listed K0, K1, K2, etc. as oppsed to by year on microfishe.

[diesel]

This is what my search turned up. Can't verify its accuracy...

https://vintelligence.polk.com/vintel/help.do

text from link quoted below
---------------------------------------------------

What is a VIN?


Vehicle Identification Numbers (or VIN) have been used since 1954 to describe and identify motor vehicles. From 1954 to 1980, VINs were a free-form of alphanumeric patterns and governed by the individual vehicle manufacturer.

Beginning with the model year 1981, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration required that all vehicles sold for on-the-road use must contain a 17 character VIN. Today, VINs are used to help identify the vehicle for sales, recalls, insurance and recovering stolen vehicle parts.

For more information about VINs, please see the U.S. Department of Transportation's website
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Thank you, thank you, thank you.
My examination of VIN numbers on my own bikes and bikes for sale on E-bay is consistent with 1981 being the "Magic" year.

My insurance company seems to have problems with the 10 digit VIN on this GT750 I've purchased. Seems they're not set up to deal with the free form VINs that aren't 17 digits long.

[Don Lobacz]

You mean (horrors!) there were vehicles before 1981?

[duaneage]

According to microsoft the world started January 1st 1980. DEC has creation starting around Jan 20, 1970.

[ptm]

According to microsoft the world started January 1st 1980. DEC has creation starting around Jan 20, 1970.