The first three characters of a VIN are the World Manufacturer Identifier (WMI). WA1 is assigned to Audi, built in Germany (Europe). Any VIN that starts with WA1 decodes to Audi. The sample VINs below are checksum-valid and start with WA1.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| WMI | WA1 (VIN positions 1–3) |
| Manufacturer | Audi |
| Country of assembly | Germany |
| Region | Europe (from the first character, W) |
| Models seen here | Q5, Q7, Q3 |
Audi test VINs · Decode a WA1 VIN →
After the WA1 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.
WA1 is a Audi WMI. Every VIN beginning with WA1 was built by Audi and decodes to that make.
The first character W places the manufacturer in Germany (Europe region) under the VIN standard.
No. They are synthetically generated but checksum-valid and use the real WA1 WMI, so a decoder returns Audi. No real vehicle's VIN is used.