A vehicle identification number (VIN) is very important to a vehicle. It is as important as a DNA is to a human being. It is as unique as a fingerprint and you can find this number on the car’s documents. It is embossed on the car’s body usually under windshield area. If you open the hood of your car you will find it there.. The practice of giving a VIN to every car started when the car production numbers started skyrocketing. It was then felt that if such a vehicle identity number description were not given for each and every vehicle, it would lead to lot of mess. The reason is there will be many cars on the road without any identification sign. For example, assume you have 20 cars of the same model with the same color and one of them knocks down a pedestrian. If there is no VIN then tracing down the owner of this car will be next only to impossible. On the contrary if there is a VIN it makes the task of tracking car owners easy.
A vehicle identification number is unique. No two cars can have the same VIN and it is made up of 17 characters. There are certain factors associated with this number and you should be aware of them. By the way here are some VIN trivia. A vehicle identification number does not include the letters I, O, or Q. A vehicle identification number is used to track the car’s history and can be used to track registrations, theft, recalls, warranty coverage, and insurance claims.
How vehicle identification number checking helps while buying a used car
One of the most important items on any used car inspection checklist will be to check on the car’s VIN. If you go ahead and complete the process of getting a vehicle identification number search it will help you in several ways. Firstly you will be able to get a vehicle identification number report. This will provide you with the following information..
- The country where the car was manufactured and the name of the manufacturing company.
- The year of manufacture of the car.
- The type and features of the used car that you are about to buy.
- Whether the car was damaged in an accident and repaired later.. It is unfortunate that these cars are sold in the market at an exorbitant rate. The sellers give these cars for welding do lots of painting and then dispose it off with tall promises. The buyers tend to get cheated by the looks of the car.
- It will tell you if the car was damaged in a flood or a fire. Something that you can never figure out in a physical used car inspection.
- It gives you information about odometer rollbacks. Many sellers and dealers reset their odometers to give the impression that the car was sparingly used or not overused.
- It informs you if the used car was ever labeled a lemon.
- A vehicle identification number report also alerts you on to junked titles.
- Has the used car ever exceeded the stipulated gas emission limit? You may not be able to figure out but the report will tell you.
- You are informed if any lien exists on the used car.
- It may be possible that the used car was used roughly previously. For example, it might have been used as a taxi or in a rental company or as a police car with Eddie Murphy behind the wheel. These details are included in the report.
- Lastly the vehicle identification number report gives you the service and repair history of the car.
- Generating one used car vehicle identification number report costs you $ 20 at the CarFax site.. However the investment is definitely worth. The only disadvantage about a vehicle identification number report is that it might deter you from buying a car that looks beautiful.
More information about vehicle identification number
Vehicle identification numbers are a security feature. A vehicle identification number report can help in fighting against fraud and help a used car buyer from buying a useless car.
All vehicle identification number records are available online. They are centralized and can be accessed easily. The system that centralizes the vehicle identification number records is so strong that it is impossible to commit any frauds or misrepresent information or act in any other unscrupulous manner
VIN identity is very popular with used car collectors. They decode the 17 digits in a VIN number and based on that they make notes about a car’s unique ness and whether it is worth collecting. For example the 19196 Audi Cabriolet that you have just purchased might have been the first car to roll off the assembly and the seller did not know about it , but you do because you have generated a VIN report. Therefore you should not ignore this important element.
Article source: http://www.iusedauto.com/used-cars-articles/vehicle-identification-number.htm
