Enter the 17-character VIN of your Saturn 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.
Enter a 17-character VIN and the Saturn decoder reads what is built into it: the manufacturer, the model year and the country of manufacture. Our data covers 12 Saturn models, including Astra, Aura, ION, LS, LW, Outlook, Relay, SC, Sky, SL, SW and VUE, with model years from 1990 to 2010.
The decoder does not know a car's accident record, mileage, theft status or past owners, because none of that is stored in a VIN. That information comes from a paid vehicle history report, while the decoder itself is free and needs no registration.
The first three characters are the World Manufacturer Identifier, or WMI. For Saturn we recognise four of them: 1G8, 3GS, 5GZ and W08. Between them they belong to three countries, the United States, Mexico and Germany, which is why the country of manufacture the decoder shows can differ from one Saturn to the next. Our WMI list is not complete, so a VIN that begins with other characters is no cause for concern. It just means those characters are not among the codes we have listed for the brand.
Characters 4 to 8 form the descriptor section, and character 9 is the check digit. North American VINs are required to carry a real check digit, while many European VINs fill that position differently, so do not read too much into it on a Saturn built in Germany. Character 10 is the model year. A 5 stands for 2005, an L for 1990, a Y for 2000 and an A for 2010. Character 11 marks the plant, and characters 12 to 17 are the serial number.
Within the 1990 to 2010 range our version data lists Hatchback, Sedan, Coupe, Wagon and Convertible bodies, and the highest power figure in it is 264 hp. Remember that the letters I, O and Q are never used in a VIN. If you see something that looks like one of them, it is almost certainly a 1 or a 0 that was misread or mistyped.
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 at the registration papers first, then on the car itself. The VIN is often visible at the base of the windshield on the driver side or on a label at the door pillar. Copy all 17 characters exactly as printed.
The first three characters are the WMI, which identifies the manufacturer and the country. We map 1G8, 3GS, 5GZ and W08 to Saturn, and those codes cover the United States, Mexico and Germany.
Check the 10th character. For Saturn models in our 1990 to 2010 range, L means 1990, Y means 2000, a digit from 1 to 9 means 2001 to 2009, and A means 2010. A VIN ending in 5 at that position, for example, points to 2005.
It cannot show accidents, mileage, theft records or previous owners, since a VIN does not contain them. It reads only the manufacturer, model year and country of manufacture from the 17 characters.
Make sure the VIN on the car matches the one in the paperwork, and that it has 17 characters with no I, O or Q. Then check that the model year the decoder gives fits the listing, and look into the car's history separately.