On many (all?) modern cars it's also visible at the bottom of driver's side of the windshield. A car's VIN is public information.
I haven't checked other vehicles, but I imagine they also have their VINs punched in the frame where it's easily visible.
I don't know if it's against the law to grind that off, but it's probably not against the law to weld a metal plate over it.
It's not always easily visible, but the VIN must be stamped on the major components of the car by law. I believe this means visible from the driver's side windshield, stamped on the frame, and stamped on the major drivetrain components.
> I don't know if it's against the law to grind that off, but it's probably not against the law to weld a metal plate over it.
In my state, it's illegal to do either of those things, but I don't believe it's illegal to obstruct the view of the VIN in a less permanent way.
My Jeep has added "frame rust protection" from the factory (Canadian-spec) and I've never been able to find a VIN stamped anywhere on the frame. Apparently the coating covered it. It was a pain in the ass crossing borders in Africa when they didn't want to use the VIN at the base on the windshield.
In fact, so do normal tickets, last I checked. My first job was punching in traffic ticket info for the CHP, and I don't recall ever seeing a VIN; just the LP and DL.
This is in the US, though. Other places might have different information tracked on citations.
Noted.
> You obviously cannot have DL on a parking ticket.
Well yeah, obviously. I was talking about tickets in a broader sense, going by forms CHP 215 ("Notice to Appear", i.e. normal traffic tickets) and CHP 281 ("Notice to Correct Violation", i.e. "fix-it" tickets).