Decoding a Banshee's VIN 🔍

What does the Banshee's VIN tell me? 

Every Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) is unique. The VIN is a 17-character combination that represents information about a vehicle, including make, model, year, manufacturer, engine type, body type, country it was manufactured in, assembly plant, serial number, and more. 

Vehicles manufactured in quantities of more than 500 must have a VIN number. The VIN coding follows international standards set by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 1979 and 1980, as well as by the European Union and the United States.

VIN Location

Every sport ATV has a 17 digit VIN, even if you need to search for the ATV VIN location a little. The Banshee's VIN is located on the left frame rail, stamped right below the engine and the shifter.

Vehicle Identification Number (VIN)

• Will contain 17 characters.
• Can include capital letters from A through Z and numbers 1 through 0.
• Letters I, O, and Q are never used within a VIN in order to avoid mistakes made by misreading them.
• No special characters or spaces are allowed in the VIN.

World Manufacturer Identifier (WMI)

The first 3 characters are the WMI.

• The 1st character represents the country where the vehicle was made.
  • 1 or 4 is for the U.S., 2 is for Canada, J is for Japan, K is for Korea.
• The 2nd character represents the manufacturer.
  • Y is for Yamaha, H is for Honda, K is for Kawasaki, etc.
• The 3rd character shows the vehicle type or manufacturing division, which can vary by make of vehicle.

Vehicle Descriptor Section (VDS)

The 4th through 9th characters make up the VDS.

• Characters 4 - 8 represent vehicle attributes such as body style and engine type (not to be confused with an engine code, every vehicle has one of those mounted on the engine).
• The 9th character is a security code that authenticates the VIN. This is called a check character or digit and it exists for security reasons. This letter or number is derived mathematically depending on the previous 8 characters. It’s used to confirm that a VIN isn’t being fabricated.

Vehicle Identifier Section (VIS)

• The VIS begins with the 10th character, which represents the model year.
• The 11th character identifies the assembly plant.
• The 12th through 17th characters are a serial number assigned by the manufacturer. These ATV VIN numbers increase by one for each unit that rolls off the assembly line. The last four are always numbers.

How does the VIN tell me the year a Banshee was manufactured?

The 10th character of the VIN represents the Banshee's year of manufacture (model year).  Here is the list of model years and the character for each year:  

• 1987 = H
• 1988 = J
• 1989 = K
• 1990 = L
• 1991 = M
• 1992 = N
• 1993 = P
• 1994 = R
• 1995 = S
• 1996 = T
• 1997 = V
• 1998 = W
• 1999 = X
• 2000 = Y
• 2001 = 1
• 2002 = 2
• 2003 = 3
• 2004 = 4
• 2005 = 5
• 2006 = 6