Step 1
Locate the VIN on your vehicle. It is usually on either the left side of your dash or the driver's side door panel sticker.
Step 2
Find the tenth digit. This is the beginning of the Vehicle Identifier Section (VIS) of the VIN, and represents the model year.
Find the corresponding year. The tenth digit started with B, which represents 1981. The letters follow consecutively for each year thereafter, down to Y, which represents 2000. The letters I, O, Q, U and Z are not used, so those should be skipped in the order. Beginning with 2001, numbers are used to represent the years, so 1 is for 2001, 2 is for 2002, etc. Starting with 2010, the tenth digit becomes a letter again, starting with A.