Vehicle identified
Open the permanent record to add ownership and photographs.
Late pre-standard Chevrolet compact VIN decoding
Chevrolet Chevette & Citation VIN Decoder and Registry
Chevette and Citation represent the end of PetrolJunky’s pre-standard Chevrolet passenger-car coverage. Their 13-character VINs still predate the universal 17-character standard, and the 1980 Citation also marks Chevrolet’s major move into front-wheel-drive compact production.
CH
MODEL DECODERChevette / Citation1976–1980
Universal VIN Input
Decode from this page
This page explains Chevette / Citation, but the input accepts every PetrolJunky-supported identifier.
Decoder Reference
What this identifier can tell you
1976–1980 ChevetteScooter VIN series1980 CitationEngine/year/plant decodingCitation front-wheel-drive result
Chevette uses B/J series families
Reviewed 1976–1980 VIN maps separate normal Chevette production from the Scooter series while retaining body, engine, model-year, plant and sequence characters. Appearance and Z24-style package names are never assumed unless supported by the year-specific VIN evidence.
1980 Citation is front-wheel drive
Citation uses H/X series families in the 1980 Chevrolet format and must not inherit the rear-wheel-drive assumption used by most classic Chevrolet passenger cars. PetrolJunky explicitly returns front-wheel drive for a valid Citation result.
1981 standardized VINs are a different system
Once a Chevrolet carries a normal 17-character standardized VIN, PetrolJunky routes it to NHTSA rather than extending the classic parser past its historical boundary. That keeps 1980 transition cars and later federal VINs from being mixed.
Public Registry
