Enter the 17-character VIN of your Hindustan to see the factory basics. Free, with no registration.
Look on the dashboard, the driver's door frame or in the registration document.
Type all 17 characters. The letters I, O and Q are never used in a VIN.
See the factory basics for free, and order a full report for the history behind the VIN.
This page decodes the 17-character VIN of a Hindustan. It reads the manufacturer, the model year and the country of manufacture straight from the characters, and it is free with no registration. Our data for the brand covers four models, among them Ambassador, Contessa, Lancer and Pajero, with model years from 1984 to the present.
A VIN does not record accidents, mileage, theft or previous owners. That information comes from a paid vehicle history report, and the decoder here is only the first step.
Pick a Hindustan model to see how its VIN works.
Every VIN built since 1981 has 17 characters, and the letters I, O and Q are never used. The first three characters are the WMI, which identifies the manufacturer. At the moment we have no WMI codes mapped to Hindustan, so there is no list to show here and no country to name. Our list is not complete, so a VIN that begins with other characters is not a cause for concern.
Characters 4 to 8 describe the vehicle, and character 9 is a check digit. North America requires the check digit, while many European VINs fill that position differently. Character 10 gives the model year. For a Hindustan from the start of our range, 1984, the letter is E. The same letter also stands for 2014, because the letters repeat in a 30-year cycle, so the descriptor and serial characters help tell the two apart. Character 11 marks the plant, and characters 12 to 17 are the serial number.
Our version data lists sedan as the body style and 161 hp as the highest power for the brand. Treat those figures as the limits of what we hold, not as a description of any particular car.
Every VIN has six parts. This is what each of them means.
| Part | Characters | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| WMI | 1 to 3 | World manufacturer identifier: who built the vehicle and where |
| VDS | 4 to 8 | Vehicle descriptor: model, body type and engine, as set by the manufacturer |
| Check digit | 9 | Control value that helps confirm the VIN is valid |
| Model year | 10 | Code for the model year |
| Plant | 11 | Code for the assembly plant |
| Serial | 12 to 17 | Production sequence number of this vehicle |
On the driver's side, visible through the windshield.
On a sticker on the door frame or the edge of the door.
Printed in the vehicle registration or title.
Stamped on the firewall or the frame on many models.
A VIN is built from six parts, and each one says something about the vehicle. Our guides explain how to read it and what it can and cannot tell you.
Enter the 17-character VIN and see the factory basics in seconds.
Look for a plate near the base of the windscreen, a sticker on the door pillar, or the registration papers. On older cars the position can vary, so compare more than one place.
The first three characters are the WMI, which identifies the manufacturer. We have no WMI codes mapped to Hindustan yet, and our list is incomplete, so a VIN that starts with other characters is not a problem in itself.
Check the 10th character. E means 1984 and L means 1990, for example, and A means 2010. Letters repeat every 30 years, so E can also mean 2014, and you should compare the result with the model you are looking at.
It reads only the VIN itself, so it cannot show accidents, mileage, theft or owners. Those details are not stored in the 17 characters.
Make sure the VIN on the car matches the one in the documents, and look for signs that a plate or sticker has been tampered with. Run the VIN through the decoder and confirm that the model year it gives fits the car in front of you.