Validates and decodes vehicle identification numbers (VIN).

Missing WMIs - decoded 19M VINs; missed 900K.

TODO:

• Complete VDS decipher (positions 4-8)
• Complete manufacturing plant desipher (position 11)
• Populate DB with vehicle specs
• Add missing WMI codes

Starting with 1981, a valid VIN must be 17 characters in length.

A valid VIN cannot contains letter O, Q, and I to avoid confusion with number 1 and 0 (zero).

Vehicles sold in the US and Canada use 9th digit in checksum test to ensure the VIN is valid.

Transliteration

Every letter is converted to a number using the following matrix:

Compute a sum of products of each position by multiplying transliterated VIN character by a weighted factor.

Find the remainder of the weighted sum divided by 11. If the remainder is between 1 and 9 inclusively, it should match the check digit in the 9th position of the VIN. If the remainder is 10, then the check digit must be 'X' for the VIN to be valid.

This SQL function performs VIN validation described above.

The first three characters of the VIN uniquely identify the vehicle manufacturer. The first character of the VIN identifies the region in which the manufacturer is located. 9 in the 3rd position indicate that the manufacturer builds fewer than 1,000 vehicles per year.

Supports 9,017 WMIs

If the 7th character is numeric, the model year is between 1981 and 2009; otherwise, 2010 and later. In addition to restricted characters, U, Z and 0 (zero) are not permitted in 10th position used to determine vehicle year.

Supported year range is 1980 - 2039

Sequential or serial number assigned by the manufacturer is stored in position 12 - 17. Small manufacturers producing less than 500 vehicles annually can be identified by the characters in position 12 - 14.