If you are interested in the history of a vehicle it is best to know its true origins. Whether you are planning to buy a vehicle and need to know its history, or you are selling your Toyota and want to give the most detailed information on it to shoppers, it's important to know where to got to find this information on the Internet.

Since the turn of the last century every vehicle produced that is sold in the US and Europe includes an ID called a VIN (Vehicle Identification Number). Every Vehicle Identification Number contains critical information that acts like a fingerprint for that vehicle. This VIN is always unique to a vehicle.

Prior to 1981 each car maker was allowed to create whatever system they wanted to use for their VINs. Mass confusion ensued over the years with no simple way to determine what vehicle a VIN represented just by looking at the number. The problem was solved by an industry standard 17-character code that was released in 1981. In order to read the older formats there are several resources on the Internet, but only Decode This! (http://www.decodethis.com) provides a free VIN decoder that will decode all early VINs from one database.

The current VIN layout is divided into several sections that allow certain information to be determined from the ID. Each make, for example, is identified by the first few characters. The VIN also includes the restraint system, engine code, model year, and a six-digit serial number. Taken together this information makes up the VIN. Again, Decode This! provides a complete modern VIN decoder to allow you to automatically decode this information.

It is important to realize the VIN includes a lot of information but there are things that it does NOT include. There is no code on the specific optional equipment items installed on an individual vehicle. Since the VIN is assigned to the car or truck at the beginning of the assembly line, and the optional equipment items are installed later in the process, the VIN has no information on this optional equipment. This means the VIN can tell you the possible equipment that was available for a particular model, but it will not be a vehicle history report on a particular car or truck. The original manufacturers have this information in separate databases that they license for use to certain vendors.

Online VIN decoders such as Decode This! take the VIN and using a database of information provide the information contained in that identifier in an easy to read format. Decode This! for example has an extensive on all the information available for each model year and manufacturer of cars and trucks in the US. You can get a detailed report of the information available for your vehicle.

More sources can use this VIN data to provide a way to quickly identify a vehicle. WindowSticker.us (http://www.windowsticker.us), a custom used car window sticker application, uses the VIN to determine the make, model, and year, as well as what the standard and optional equipment was available for the model year. It also can determine the possible internal and external color choices that were available.

So when you're looking for information about a vehicle the VIN is a powerful way to begin.