What year is a VIN with the 10th digit A?

Either 1980 or 2010. A is the first code in the 30-year cycle, so it comes round twice. If the seventh character of the VIN is a letter the vehicle is a 2010; if it is a number, it is a 1980.

Why don't VIN year codes use I, O, Q, U, Z or zero?

I, O and Q never appear anywhere in a VIN because they are too easily confused with 1 and 0. The model-year position drops U, Z and the digit 0 as well, which is what leaves exactly 30 usable codes and creates the 30-year cycle.

Is the 10th digit the model year or the year it was built?

The model year, which is what the title and the registration use. Manufacturers commonly start building a model year in the summer of the previous calendar year, so a car with a 2024 model-year code may well have rolled off the line in 2023.

Does the 10th character work the same on every vehicle?

On everything built to the US standard, yes. Cars, trucks, motorcycles, trailers and RVs all put the model year in position 10. Vehicles built before the 1981 model year predate the standard and cannot be read this way at all.

VIN position 10

VIN year chart: what the 10th digit means

The tenth character of a VIN is the model year. It is a single letter or digit, and it runs on a fixed 30-year cycle, which is why the same character stands for two different years, thirty years apart.

Below is the complete table, both cycles, plus the rule that tells the two apart.

The model year table

Thirty codes: the letters A to Y with I, O, Q, U and Z removed, then the digits 1 to 9. The cycle started with A for the 1980 model year and started over with A again for 2010.

VIN model year codes, part 1 of 2
10th character	First cycle	Second cycle
A	1980	2010
B	1981	2011
C	1982	2012
D	1983	2013
E	1984	2014
F	1985	2015
G	1986	2016
H	1987	2017
J	1988	2018
K	1989	2019
L	1990	2020
M	1991	2021
N	1992	2022
P	1993	2023
R	1994	2024

VIN model year codes, part 2 of 2
10th character	First cycle	Second cycle
S	1995	2025
T	1996	2026
V	1997	2027
W	1998	2028
X	1999	2029
Y	2000	2030
1	2001	2031
2	2002	2032
3	2003	2033
4	2004	2034
5	2005	2035
6	2006	2036
7	2007	2037
8	2008	2038
9	2009	2039

The third cycle begins with A again for the 2040 model year.

Which of the two years is it?

For cars and light trucks (anything rated at 10,000 lb or less) the seventh character settles it. If position 7 is a letter, the vehicle is from the 2010 to 2039 cycle. If it is a number, it is from the 1980 to 2009 cycle. That rule is written into the federal VIN standard, and it is what a decoder uses before it looks anything up.

Common sense closes the rest of the gap. A VIN that decodes to a Tesla Model Y is not a 1993 vehicle, and an airbag-free carburetor-era pickup is not a 2023 one. Our decoder resolves the year from the manufacturer's own record where NHTSA has one, and only falls back to showing both candidates when it does not.

Worked example

Take the VIN of a 1993 Ford Explorer:

1FMDU34X7PUD75574

10th character: P, so either the 1993 or the 2023 model year.
7th character: 4, a number, so the first cycle. That makes it a 1993, which is what NHTSA has on record for this VIN.

The chart tells you the model year. It cannot tell you the month a vehicle was assembled, and it says nothing about what has happened to it since. That is what the full history report is for.

Questions about the year code

What year is a VIN with the 10th digit A?: Either 1980 or 2010. A is the first code in the 30-year cycle, so it comes round twice. If the seventh character of the VIN is a letter the vehicle is a 2010; if it is a number, it is a 1980.
Why don't VIN year codes use I, O, Q, U, Z or zero?: I, O and Q never appear anywhere in a VIN because they are too easily confused with 1 and 0. The model-year position drops U, Z and the digit 0 as well, which is what leaves exactly 30 usable codes and creates the 30-year cycle.
Is the 10th digit the model year or the year it was built?: The model year, which is what the title and the registration use. Manufacturers commonly start building a model year in the summer of the previous calendar year, so a car with a 2024 model-year code may well have rolled off the line in 2023.
Does the 10th character work the same on every vehicle?: On everything built to the US standard, yes. Cars, trucks, motorcycles, trailers and RVs all put the model year in position 10. Vehicles built before the 1981 model year predate the standard and cannot be read this way at all.

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