Enter the 17-character VIN of your RUF 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 VIN of a RUF. Enter the 17 characters and the decoder tells you the manufacturer, the model year and the country of manufacture. It is free and needs no registration. Our data for the brand lists three models, CTR, RtR and SCR, with model years from 1987 to 2018, and the highest power we have on record is 777 hp.
A VIN only identifies the car. It says nothing about accidents, mileage, theft or previous owners. That information comes from a paid vehicle history report, which is a separate step from the decoder.
The first three characters are the World Manufacturer Identifier, or WMI. For RUF we map one code, W09, and it belongs to Germany. If a VIN begins with W09, the decoder reports RUF as the manufacturer and Germany as the country. Our list of codes is not complete, so it only shows the ones we recognise for the brand.
Characters 4 to 8 form the descriptor section, where the maker encodes details about the vehicle. Character 9 is a check digit. It is required in North America, while many European VINs fill that position differently, so do not worry if it looks arbitrary on a German car. Character 10 is the model year, character 11 the plant, and characters 12 to 17 the serial number.
The model year character is the one most people look for first. In our data for RUF the years run from 1987 to 2018, and the letter H stands for 1987 and J for 2018. These letters repeat every 30 years, so H also means 2017 and J also means 1988. The letters I, O and Q are never used in a VIN, which helps when you are copying a number from a worn plate.
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.
On most cars it is on a plate at the base of the windscreen on the driver's side, on a door pillar, and in the registration papers. Check that the number is the same in every place, and copy all 17 characters exactly.
W09 is the WMI code we map to RUF, and it belongs to Germany. It covers the first three characters only, so the model and the rest of the car are described by the characters that follow.
Look at the 10th character. In the 1987 to 2018 range of our data, H means 1987 and J means 2018, although the same letters also stand for 2017 and 1988. Other details of the car can help you tell which of the two years applies.
It reads only the VIN itself, so you get the manufacturer, model year and country of manufacture. Accidents, mileage, theft records and the number of owners are not stored in a VIN.
Compare the VIN on the car with the one in the papers, and make sure the model year character fits the year the seller states. Then ask for service records and have the car inspected by someone who knows the brand.