Decoding a Car’s VIN Can Tell You Where It Was Made—and More

You can also look at the first two characters of the VIN. These are called a World Manufacturer Identifier, and they show where a car’s final assembly took place.

These are World Manufacturer Identifiers for vehicles sold in the U.S.:

1, 4, 5, 7F through 7Z, and 70: U.S.
2: Canada
3: Mexico
9A through 9E and 93 through 99: Brazil
AA through AH: South Africa
J: Japan
KL through KR: South Korea
L: China
MA through ME and MY through M0: India
ML through MR: Thailand
SA through SM: United Kingdom
TJ through TP: Czech Republic
TR through TV: Hungary
U5 through U7: Slovakia
VA through VE: Austria
VF through VR: France
VS through VW: Spain
W: Germany
YA through YE: Belgium
YS through YW: Sweden
YF through YK: Finland
XL through XR: The Netherlands
ZA through ZU: Italy

The VIN and door placard on Consumer Report’s Honda Prologue test vehicle show just how complex and international the automotive industry is. Although Honda’s headquarters are in Tokyo, the Prologue is built by General Motors—based in Detroit—at a factory in Ramos Arizpe, Mexico. Its batteries are assembled in the U.S. with parts from LG Chem, a Korean company.