Vehicle Description Section (VDS) is the second part of the VIN and is represented by the characters from fourth to ninth position. This part is aimed to identify the vehicle type, and may contain information about the vehicle platform, the model, and the body style.

VDS consist of 6 characters and is used to describe the general attributes of the vehicle. Every manufacturer has its own unique system for using this part of VIN. One compulsory thing for vehicles in North America and China is to use the ninth position as a check digit. It can be any digit from 0 to 9 or the letter "X" and should help to verify the validity of a VIN using a calculation.