What Is Year-Make-Model (YMM)?
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Talk to our experts- Year-Make-Model (YMM)
- Year-Make-Model (YMM) is the three-part way to identify a vehicle: its model year, its make (the name a manufacturer applies to a group of vehicles) and its model (the name for a family of vehicles within that make). In auto parts catalogs, a YMM lookup is how buyers find parts by vehicle, backed by fitment data.
Also called: YMM
How it works
Federal vehicle identification rules define all three parts:
- Year. The model year is the year used to designate a discrete vehicle model, irrespective of the calendar year the vehicle was actually produced, provided the production period does not exceed 24 months.
- Make. A name a manufacturer applies to a group of vehicles or engines.
- Model. A name a manufacturer applies to a family of vehicles of the same type, make, line, series and body type.
Under the same rules, each vehicle identification number (VIN) has 17 characters, and it encodes related data. Position 10 is the model year code: 2025 is S, 2026 is T and 2027 is V. The letters I, O and Q are not allowed. For a passenger car, positions 4 to 8 encode the make, line, series, body type, engine type and restraint devices.
Fitment data can go deeper than year, make and model. The Auto Care Association's Vehicle Configuration database (VCdb), used with the ACES fitment standard, lets a company describe a vehicle with as much or as little detail as it needs to catalog and sell a product. Its own example: a product that requires a Year, Make, Model lookup to be found in a catalog or web lookup uses ACES to communicate that fitment.
Example
A buyer types a VIN whose 10th character is T, so the model year is 2026. They pick the make and model, and the store narrows the catalog to parts with a fitment record for that vehicle.
A brake rotor in that catalog fits the same model for 2024, 2025 and 2026: three YMM records. A second rotor fits only a heavy duty version of the 2026 model, so its record carries that extra detail. The buyer with a standard 2026 sees the first rotor and not the second.
On Shopify
Shopify's Search & Discovery app builds storefront filters from product options, metafields and metaobjects. Choosing values from different filters is an and condition, so Year, Make and Model filters narrow results together. Choosing several values from the same filter is an or condition by default. Filter values sort in ascending order by default, alphabetically and numerically.
Limits to plan around for a vehicle catalog:
- A filter can display a maximum of 100 values on your store. Past that, some values aren't displayed to customers.
- A store can have up to 25 filters.
- Collections with more than 5,000 products don't display filters.
As general practice, catalogs that outgrow these limits run YMM through an app or a custom build that stores each part's fitment as vehicle records.
How Uncap helps
Uncap Garage adds a YMM selector to the storefront and makes product pages, search, and collections fitment-aware. Buyers can save their vehicles to a garage and return to a store that already knows what fits.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the year make model of a car?
It is the vehicle's model year, its make (the manufacturer's name for a group of vehicles) and its model (the name for a family of vehicles within that make). Parts stores use the three together to find parts that fit.
How to identify model year?
Read the 10th character of the 17-character VIN. Federal rules assign each model year a code, for example S for 2025, T for 2026 and V for 2027.
What year and model is my car?
The VIN helps. Position 10 gives the model year, and for a passenger car positions 4 to 8 encode the make, line, series, body type and engine type, which the manufacturer's information lets you decipher.
