How to Decode a Dodge VIN Number
VINs are used by state motor vehicle administrations, insurance companies and auto manufacturers to identify individual cars and track trends. Each vehicle on the road has a unique VIN allocated to it at the assembly plant. The modern VIN is seventeen characters long and can provide a wealth of information about your vehicle. The only characters that do not convey useful information are the ninth (called the check digit) and the last six, which comprise the engine number, assigned sequentially as cars come off of the production line.
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Instructions
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Locate the VIN. According to Dodge, the VIN plate can be found on your car's front dash (look from the outside in to see it), or on the door jamb (you'll be able to see it when the door is open). The VIN can also be found on insurance documents and the car's title.
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Locate the first character of the VIN. This tells you the country of manufacture. For example: 1 (U.S.), 2 (Canada).
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Find the second character. This indicates the manufacturer: B (Dodge), C (Chrysler), P (Plymouth).
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Locate the third character. This indicates the vehicle type. For example: 3 (passenger car), 7 (pickup truck).
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Locate the fourth character. This tells you the gross vehicle weight. For example, A (not greater than 3,000 pounds), B (3,001-4,000 pounds). On some older models, this digit was for safety features, such as B (manual seat belts) and X (driver's side airbag/passenger manual seat belt).
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Locate the fifth character. This tells you the line. For example, S (Neon LHD), V (Neon RHD), B (Gran Fury & Caravelle), F (Fifth Avenue), G (Diplomat).
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Locate the sixth character to find out the vehicle add-ons and packages. For example, some of the codes on 2002 models are 4 (SE/LE), 5 (ES/SXT/LX), A (Automatic) and M (Manual).
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Find the seventh character to identify the body type. For example: the character 6 indicates a four-door sedan.
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Find the eighth character of your VIN to learn the engine type. Examples of engine types are: C (2.0L SOHC),
F (2.0L "High-Output Magnum" SOHC) and P (1.6L SOHC). -
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The ninth character is the check digit, used to verify the VIN.
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Find the tenth character to figure out the manufacture date. These run sequentially from 1981, first alpha then numeric. There was no Z. For example, X (1999), Y(2000), 1 (2001).
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Locate the eleventh character to find out which plant manufactured your Dodge. For example, A (Lynch Road),
B (Hamtramck), D (Belvidere, Illinois).
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Tips & Warnings
Dodge VINs differ by year and model. Your best bet at decoding your car's VIN is an online VIN decoder (see Resources).
The seventeen-character VIN was standardized on all vehicles manufactured after 1981. For earlier vehicles, VINs were haphazard in nature. Look up the year of manufacture and use an online VIN calculator to find VIN details specific to that year (some years had seven digits, some had ten and some seventeen).
