Where to find the VIN on a Nissan Patrol Y62

Location 1: the VIN plate on the dashboard

On the Nissan Patrol Y62, start with the VIN plate on top of the dashboard, at the bottom edge of the windscreen beside the windscreen pillar. Read it from outside the car, through the glass, without opening anything. Nissan’s general-market Patrol owner’s manual, which has sections for Middle East and Gulf Standard cars, shows the plate in this position but marks it “if equipped”, so a car may not have one. In Nissan’s drawing the plate is at the left windscreen pillar, the driver’s side on a left-hand-drive car such as a UAE Patrol, seen from outside. Nissan’s US owner’s manuals for the Nissan Armada, which shares the Y62 code in their publication numbers, show the same plate and say the number is the identification for the vehicle and is used in its registration. On a car built for the US, federal rules require this VIN to be readable from outside the car, next to the left windscreen pillar.

Location 2: the label on the driver’s-side centre pillar

Open the driver’s door of the Nissan Patrol Y62 and look low on the centre pillar, the post between the front and rear doors. Nissan’s general-market Patrol manual describes a vehicle identification label here, again “if equipped”, and says the built date, where the label has one, is stamped on it: the calendar month and year in which the body and drivetrain were joined and the car left the production line. On a US-market Nissan Armada the label in this position is the Federal/Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standards certification label, which Nissan says shows the month and year of manufacture and the VIN; US rules require that label next to the driver’s seat. Nissan’s general-market manual also lists a separate certification label, “if equipped”, in the same position, and puts the tyre pressure placard on the driver’s-side centre pillar too, so a car may carry more than one label there; read the one that shows the VIN.

Location 3: the VIN stamped on the chassis frame

Nissan also stamps the Nissan Patrol Y62 VIN into the chassis frame under the car; its US Armada manual calls this the chassis number. Nissan’s general-market Patrol manual and its US Armada manuals use the same drawing: the number is on the side of the frame rail, below the front door and behind the front wheel. The drawings show the right-hand rail, the passenger side on a left-hand-drive car such as a UAE Patrol, so look on that side first. Unlike the dashboard plate and the pillar label, the general-market manual does not mark this stamping “if equipped”. It is the hardest of the three to see, so crouch beside the right-hand front door and look under the sill with a torch. Clean away dirt gently rather than scraping: Nissan’s general-market manual says it is prohibited to cover, paint, weld, cut, drill, alter or remove the VIN.

How to read a Nissan Patrol Y62 VIN

A Nissan Patrol Y62 VIN has 17 characters, and the first three are the manufacturer identifier, commonly called the world manufacturer identifier (WMI). The register of the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) records JN1, for passenger cars, and JN8, for multipurpose passenger vehicles, against Nissan Motor Company, Ltd, with Japan as the country; US-market Nissan Armadas decode with JN8. The first character is a region code, not proof of where a car was built or sold: in a 2024 interpretation letter NHTSA said a manufacturer identifier need not show the country of manufacture, and the plant is coded separately, in position 11.

For a car built to US rules, such as a Nissan Armada, position 9 is a check digit, position 10 the model year and position 11 the plant. NHTSA’s free VIN decoder shows the plant as reported by the manufacturer, and for the Armada’s VIN pattern it lists 2017 and 2019 US-market cars as built at Nissan Shatai’s Kyushu plant in Japan, with a 5.6-litre engine; for 2017 it also shows a seven-speed transmission. Nissan’s US owner’s manuals for the 2019 to 2024 Armada carry the Y62 code in their publication numbers; the 2025 manual carries Y63, the next generation.

A Nissan Patrol Y62 built for a market outside the US may use a different layout. A 2013 Nissan Australia sheet, published by an Australian owners’ club, decodes an Australian Y62 VIN with the model code Y62 in positions 7 to 9, a destination code in position 10 (A for Australia and New Zealand) and a 0 with no meaning in position 11. On such a VIN, position 9, the US check digit, is part of the model code, the character where a US VIN carries the model year is a destination code, and the character where a US VIN carries the plant has no meaning, so US-style decoding does not apply. No official source we found sets out the layout for Gulf-specification Patrols, so do not reject a VIN only because a US-style check fails; ask Nissan’s agent in the UAE what it means.

Why every Nissan Patrol Y62 VIN must match

The dashboard plate, the centre-pillar label, the chassis-frame stamping and the vehicle registration card should all show the same 17 characters. Nissan’s US Armada manual says the VIN is the identification for the vehicle and is used in its registration, and its general-market Patrol manual says it is prohibited to cover, paint, weld, cut, drill, alter or remove the VIN. Where the pillar label shows a built date, compare it with the model year the seller gives you: the built date is the calendar month and year of production, so a car built a few months before its model year is normal, but a gap of years is not.

Treat a VIN that differs from the others, characters that look re-stamped or ground down, or a plate or label that looks newer than the car around it as a reason to stop. Ask the seller to explain the difference in writing, and do not pay until an independent inspection and the authorities have answered your questions.

What to do if a Nissan Patrol Y62 VIN is damaged or different

No official UAE source we found explains what to do when a chassis number is damaged, unreadable or different from the registration card, so this guide cannot give you an official procedure. Do not rely on the seller’s explanation: before you pay, ask the traffic authority of the emirate where the car is registered, for example the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) in Dubai, or the police. The RTA describes its technical inspection as mandatory and as a check of roadworthiness at approved centres, with re-inspection after a failed test and a route to appeal the result. Nissan’s general-market Patrol manual says it is prohibited to alter or remove the VIN, so do not have a number re-stamped or a plate replaced privately.

On a Nissan Armada brought from the US, also compare the VIN with the US certification label on the driver’s door pillar and with the import papers. Nissan’s US manual warns that a vehicle registered in another country may need changes to meet local rules, and that its transport, changes and registration are the owner’s responsibility.