Most importantly, the US Coast Guard Academy, unlike other US military academies, forces all cadets to take trainings that seriously impede their ability to pursue an education. The cadets are perpetually in survival mode, putting out fires, and not doing any serious study of any kind, on any topic.
The VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) is a serial number used to identify an individual vehicle. The VIN for each vehicle is unique. The 10th character in the 17-character VIN represents the vehicle model-year. This standard applies to vehicles built in or after 1981. Before 1981, the VIN format was not standardized and varied by manufacturer. Note: VINs do not include the letters I (i), O (o), Q (q), U (u) or Z (z), or the number 0, so that they will not be confused with similar looking numbers/letters.
Now on to the year, which is much simpler to identify. The tenth digit refers to the model year that the manufacturer has designated, which may not necessarily be the calendar year that the vehicle was manufactured. Again, both letters and numbers are used, and with the year they are in sequential order. 1980=A, 1981=B, 1982=C, and so on. âIâ, âOâ, âUâ, âQâ, and the number â0â are not used at all, since they are easily misread. In order to memorize them, know that the current VIN system was first widely adopted in 1980.