The 10th character of a VIN encodes the model year. For a 2003 vehicle that character is 3. So if position 10 of a VIN reads 3, the model year is 2003 (or the same code 30 years away — see below). Every sample VIN on this page is checksum-valid and decodes to 2003 via a real WMI.
Read a VIN left to right: positions 1–3 are the manufacturer (WMI), 4–8 describe the model, position 9 is the check digit, and position 10 is the model year. Position 11 is the plant and 12–17 are the serial. Only that single 10th character changes from a 2002 to a 2003 to a 2004 of the same vehicle.
Have a VIN to check? Decode it → · See the full 17-digit format →
VIN year codes repeat on a 30-year cycle, so the code 3 also marked 1973 and will mark 2033. The letters I, O, Q, U, Z and 0 are skipped, and digits 1–9 were used for 2001–2009. In practice you tell the two eras apart from context — the WMI, the check digit, and whether the vehicle plausibly looks 30 years newer or older.
In the 10th position of a VIN, 3 means model year 2003 for any recent vehicle. Because year codes repeat every 30 years, the same code also applied to 1973 and will apply again in 2033.
The 10th character. Count nine characters in from the left; the next one — position 10 — is the model-year code, 3 for 2003.
No — they are synthetically generated for testing. Each is checksum-valid, uses a real manufacturer WMI, and carries the correct 3 year code so it decodes as a 2003 vehicle. No real vehicle's VIN is used.