The VIN (vehicle identification number) has 17 characters. It is stamped on the chassis, printed on the registration document and visible under the windscreen. It tells who built the car, where, and for which model year; in North America, its 9th character is a check digit that gives away altered or miscopied numbers.

In real life: vindecoder.net, the NHTSA vPIC database (United States), HistoVec in France for a registered vehicle's history. In Europe, the check digit and the year code are not mandatory: each manufacturer has its own rules.