In the mid 1980's the Department of Transportation issued the Federal
Motor Vehicle Theft Prevention Standard to try to reduce the number of motor vehicle thefts and over the next few years several standards where
introduced.
1987: autos in this model year that were high theft were required to have
12-14 of their major component parts marked with the VIN.
1994: the standard was amended to include multi-purpose passenger vehicles
and light duty trucks.
