How Do I Read a 1987 Chevy's VIN Number?

The vehicle identification number (VIN) of a car fulfills multiple purposes, including identifying the car for anti-theft purposes and due diligence during a purchase and determining the model year, ethanol compatibility and model features. You can find your Chevrolet's VIN on the dashboard by looking through the lower corner of the windshield on the driver's side.

Instructions

1

Read character 1 as the country of manufacture:
1: United States
2: Canada

2

Read character 2 as the manufacturer. This character for a Chevrolet is G, for GM.

3

Read character 3 as the make. For 1987 Chevrolets, character 3 is 1.

4

Read character 4 and 5 as the car model. For 1987 Chevrolet, there are 20 codes for car model, so the list will not be recreated here.

5

Read character 6 as the body style. For model year 1987, the codes are 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 8. 1 through 3 is for two-door models: 5 through 8 is for four-doors. 1 is for coupe or sedan. 5 is for sedan (there are no four-door coupes). 2 and 6 are hatchbacks. 3 is for convertibles. 8 is for station wagons.

6

Read character 7 as the restraint method. For model year 1987, 1 is for manual seat belts, and 4 is for automatic.

7

Read character 8 as the engine type. For model year 1987, there are 20 engine types for the various GM cars, so the list will not be recreated here.

8

Don't concern yourself with character 9. GM uses it internally.

9

Read character 10 as the model year. For 1987, the 10th character is H. This might come as a surprise, if you know that 1 stands for 2001, but five letters of the alphabet are skipped in coding model year to avoid confusion with other letters or numbers: I, O, Q, U and Z .

10

Read character 11 as the city of manufacture. GM coded 44 factories for model year 1987, so the list will not be recreated here.

11

Read the last six characters of the VIN as a counter of what order the cars come off the assembly line. These characters ensure the uniqueness of each car's VIN.