The first three characters of a VIN are the World Manufacturer Identifier (WMI). WAU is assigned to Audi, built in Germany (Europe). Any VIN that starts with WAU decodes to Audi. The sample VINs below are checksum-valid and start with WAU.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| WMI | WAU (VIN positions 1–3) |
| Manufacturer | Audi |
| Country of assembly | Germany |
| Region | Europe (from the first character, W) |
| Models seen here | A4, A6 |
Audi test VINs · Decode a WAU VIN →
After the WAU 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.
WAU is a Audi WMI. Every VIN beginning with WAU 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 WAU WMI, so a decoder returns Audi. No real vehicle's VIN is used.