The first three characters of a VIN are the World Manufacturer Identifier (WMI). 1VW is assigned to Volkswagen, built in United States (North America). Any VIN that starts with 1VW decodes to Volkswagen. The sample VINs below are checksum-valid and start with 1VW.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| WMI | 1VW (VIN positions 1–3) |
| Manufacturer | Volkswagen |
| Country of assembly | United States |
| Region | North America (from the first character, 1) |
| Models seen here | Passat |
Volkswagen test VINs · Decode a 1VW VIN →
After the 1VW WMI, positions 4–8 describe the model, body and engine; position 9 is the mod-11 check digit; position 10 is the model year; position 11 is the assembly plant; and positions 12–17 are the serial number. See the full 17-digit VIN format.
1VW is a Volkswagen WMI. Every VIN beginning with 1VW was built by Volkswagen and decodes to that make.
The first character 1 places the manufacturer in United States (North America region) under the VIN standard.
No. They are synthetically generated but checksum-valid and use the real 1VW WMI, so a decoder returns Volkswagen. No real vehicle's VIN is used.