If you are the owner of a Ford car or truck and want to find out more about your vehicle, its VIN or the Vehicle Identification Number can provide plenty of new information. A VIN may also come in handy if you are thinking of purchasing a used Ford vehicle, especially trucks that are used quite harshly and therefore go through a lot of wear & tear.
A VIN is an alphanumeric 17-character code that is worn by every car on the road. It can let you know about the service history, the condition and the features of any specific vehicle along with many other pieces of information. Let us go through the different uses a VIN serves:
What is a Vehicle Identification Number used for?
A VIN contains information about the make, the model, the manufacturer and the year of manufacture. It also tells about the specific features of the vehicle. VIN contains the service history as well as vehicle recall records in the case of a malfunction or an accident. You can also find out the mileage of the vehicle along with the history and details of its owners.
All these factors and the fact that you can even find out whether a Ford truck is stolen through its VIN, are really helpful while purchasing a used car. Let us assume that you want to buy a used Ford truck, which is for sale at a lower than market price yet looks completely new. You may think that you are getting a very good deal. By using its VIN you may find out that the vehicle has been in an accident in the past, or due to a bad off-roading incident, it has weak suspension and brakes that may need replacement soon. These are things that a dealer would probably hide from you to make a sale, but by knowing them, you can either leave the purchase or make an appropriate offer according to the market value of the truck.
Stolen vehicles are registered against VIN, and this information helps car dealers a lot. If a stolen car is brought to their dealership, they can find out its status and report it to the concerned authorities immediately. This is useful in apprehending the culprits and saving the auto dealers from unknowingly committing the crime of selling stolen vehicles.
How to find the VIN on your Ford?
There are three main locations where the VIN of your Ford vehicle may be found. They are as follows:
- It is located on the inside of both the front doors. If you open the door and follow the sill, you would be able to easily find it engraved.
- VIN can also be found on the bottom of the windshield, usually on the driver’s side. It is usually printed but also has a sticker in some vehicles.
- You can also contact your Ford dealer or simply go through the registration book of the vehicle. It would be mentioned there as well.
How to extract information from your Ford vehicle’s VIN?
The VIN is a 17-character alphanumeric combination. Each character stands for something. You can either use a VIN Decoder to find out the meaning or use a manual guide to help you out. Ford slightly changes VIN formats for its vehicles depending on the regions such as Europe, Australia & America, but the following division of characters applies to almost all Ford vehicles:
- The first character stands for the country of manufacture. The second tells about the company and the third about the type of vehicle. 1 stands for the USA so a VIN starting with 1FT would mean a truck made by Ford in the USA.
- Characters 4-8 represent the various specifications and safety features on the car as well as the engine type and size.
- Ninth character is a security code by the manufacturer to ensure that the VIN is real.
- Character 10 is the model year of the truck.
- The 11th character specifies the exact plant of manufacturing facility the car or truck was made in.
- The final six digits are the serial number of the vehicle, and they contain information about the number the vehicle was at on the production line. This serial is unique to every vehicle in the World.
I hope that the guide I have made can help you to make a better decision about buying a used Ford vehicle and help out in finding more information about your current Ford vehicle.
