The 1st character of a VIN encodes the country or region where the vehicle was manufactured. It falls in the WMI (1–3) block of the 17-character VIN. Below is exactly what it means, with a real sample VIN highlighting the 1st position.
Here that character is 1; the full WMI 1V2 marks this VIN as a Volkswagen.
The 1st character of a VIN opens the three-character World Manufacturer Identifier (WMI) and encodes the country or region of manufacture — the broadest fact in the entire VIN.
A leading 1, 4 or 5 is the United States; 2 Canada; 3 Mexico; J Japan; K South Korea; L China; 6–7 Oceania; and S–Z Europe (with W Germany, V France/Spain, Y Sweden, Z Italy).
Decode a full VIN → · See all 17 positions →
It encodes the country or region where the vehicle was manufactured. In the sample 1V2ER2CA7PC239788 the 1st character is 1.
The 1st character of the VIN gives it: 1/4/5 = USA, 2 = Canada, 3 = Mexico, J = Japan, K = South Korea, L = China, W = Germany, and so on.
Yes — the first character encodes the country or region of manufacture as the opening character of the WMI.