Automotive data covers a broad scope of materials ranging from basic VIN decodes which may provide year, make, model, trim, to more extensive decodes that provide information such as engine and transmission information, vehicle dimensions, warranty information, to comprehensive VIN-referenced sets of data which describes the vehicle's installed and optional equipment and supply media and promotion material.

Some information is encoded directly into the VIN number by the vehicle manufacturer. This information always includes year, make, and model, and can sometimes extend to trim, engine, transmission, GVWR, and bed length. Extracting this information from the VIN requires access to data that indicates that for a certain make/model in a certain limited year span, a certain alphanumeric combo means a certain thing for that specific OEM.

When we move beyond the basics of Year / Make / Model, typically we refer to this info which is not truly decoded as "reference data" meaning that it has been compiled by a research team, and then matched to the VIN pattern. The last 6 digits of the VIN are specific to a single physical vehicle, and are not typically utilized by any kind of VIN reference (with few exceptions), other than by franchise dealers direct to manufacturer in certain cases. Information relating to those last 6 digits is not released anywhere in the industry by the manufacturers for distribution.

Automotive "reference" content can also include media such as photos, and colorized sets for various application requirements, vehicle promo videos, as well as rich descriptive materials such as accolades and awards, reviews, and editorial content. The list goes on to include pricing information related to MSRP, Retail value, Wholesale value and trade-in data.

Moving beyond these materials, there are niche sectors of the industry that use specific codes, and markers required for various standards and protocols, and as a result a bridge is required to support translation between standardized data and these specialized data sets. This is typically referred to as "Third party Integration" or "Mapping" or "schema" DataOne Software provides a flexible, yet powerful means to utilize this automotive content, and continues to expand products and services to meet a growing demand for automation, efficiencies and cost savings.