Decode Your VIN
Enter your vehicle's VIN code to discover all technical specifications. The VIN consists of 17 alphanumeric characters.
Acura CSX VIN Decoder
Decode any Acura CSX VIN free in under three seconds. Type the 17-character vehicle identification number into the decoder above and pull the model year, trim, engine, assembly plant, and any open Transport Canada recall. No account, no credit card, no email gate.
One thing to know before you start: the Acura CSX was sold exclusively in Canada. Honda never brought it to the United States, so if you’re used to NHTSA-based decoders returning a full trim and engine breakdown for every VIN, expect a thinner result here. We’ll explain exactly what does and doesn’t come back, and why, later on this page.
About the Acura CSX
The CSX was Acura Canada’s entry-level sedan for model years 2006 through 2011, badge-engineered from the 8th-generation Honda Civic Sedan sold across North America. It replaced the Acura EL, an earlier Canada-only Civic-based sedan, and existed for the same reason: Acura never sold a low-cost entry sedan in the United States after the RSX and Integra line wound down, but the Canadian arm of the brand wanted a car below the TSX to compete with Canadian-market entry-luxury rivals. Every CSX, across all six model years and both trim levels, was built at Honda of Canada Manufacturing’s plant in Alliston, Ontario, the same complex that has built Honda Civics for the Canadian market for decades.
Two engines were offered. The base CSX ran a 2.0-liter four-cylinder rated at 155 hp and 139 lb-ft of torque, paired with a 5-speed manual or a 5-speed automatic. Starting in 2007, Acura added a Type-S trim carrying a higher-output 2.0-liter four-cylinder rated at 197 hp, sold exclusively with a 6-speed manual. The Type-S was dropped for the final 2011 model year, leaving only the base engine.
| Model year | Trim levels | Engine | Transmission |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Premium, Premium w/ Navigation | 2.0L I4, 155 hp | 5-speed manual or 5-speed automatic |
| 2007 | Premium, Premium w/ Navigation, Type-S (new) | 155 hp base; 197 hp Type-S | 5-speed manual/automatic; Type-S 6-speed manual only |
| 2008 | Technology, Type-S | 155 hp base; 197 hp Type-S | 5-speed manual/automatic; Type-S 6-speed manual only |
| 2009 | Technology, Type-S | 155 hp base; 197 hp Type-S | 5-speed manual/automatic; Type-S 6-speed manual only |
| 2010 | i-Tech, Type-S | 155 hp base; 197 hp Type-S | 5-speed manual/automatic; Type-S 6-speed manual only |
| 2011 | Base, i-Tech package (Type-S discontinued) | 2.0L I4, 155 hp only | 5-speed manual or 5-speed automatic |
Acura CSX WMI codes (positions 1 to 3)
The first three characters of a VIN form the World Manufacturer Identifier, assigned by SAE on behalf of ISO. Because the CSX was never submitted for US sale, we couldn’t assume NHTSA’s vPIC database would return anything useful for it, so we pulled real, checksum-valid CSX VINs from Canadian dealer listings and decoded each one directly against NHTSA’s API rather than trust a third-party table. Every genuine CSX VIN we found, spanning 2006, 2010, and 2011, carried the same WMI:
| WMI | Country | Manufacturer | Vehicle type |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2HH | Canada | Honda of Canada Mfg., a division of Honda Canada Inc. | Passenger car (Acura) |
That result held up against NHTSA’s own WMI registry, which lists 2HH under the Acura make and the Honda of Canada manufacturer record. It’s worth noting 2HG is a separate, similarly-numbered WMI Honda of Canada uses for Honda-badged passenger cars, not Acura ones, so don’t confuse the two if you’re cross-checking a sibling Civic. We did not find any CSX VIN using a US-assigned WMI like 19U, which makes sense: the car was never built or titled in the United States.
How to read an Acura CSX VIN: position by position
Every CSX VIN follows the 17-character ISO 3779 standard used worldwide, split into a World Manufacturer Identifier, a Vehicle Descriptor Section, a check digit, and a Vehicle Identifier Section.
Positions 1 to 3: World Manufacturer Identifier
See the WMI table above. Since the CSX was built at a single plant for a single market, this block never varies.
Positions 4 to 8: Vehicle Descriptor Section (VDS)
This is where things get honest rather than tidy. When we ran real CSX VINs through NHTSA’s decoder, positions 4 through 8 came back flagged with error codes 5 and 14, meaning “VIN has errors in few positions” and “unable to provide information for some of the characters, based on the manufacturer submission.” In plain terms: Honda of Canada registered the WMI and the manufacturer record with NHTSA, but never submitted the VDS pattern table that would let the API translate those five characters into a body style, engine, or trim. That’s expected for a car that was never sold in the US; NHTSA’s pattern data is built almost entirely from US-market submissions.
We can still tell you what we directly observed. Every one of the three real CSX VINs we decoded (a 2006, a 2010, and a 2011) carried FD5 at positions 4 to 6, consistent with the CSX sharing its structural chassis code with the 8th-generation Civic Sedan platform. Position 7 differed between our samples (5 on the 2006 car, F on the 2010 and 2011 cars), which likely reflects a running change in body or restraint-system coding partway through the production run, though we only have three data points and won’t guess further. Position 8 read 7 on all three, but because NHTSA has no pattern data to confirm what that character represents, and it showed up identically on both a base-trim and an i-Tech-trim car in our sample, we’re not going to claim it maps to trim or engine. The decoder above reconstructs trim and engine by cross-referencing external CSX build data, not by reading positions 4 to 8 alone, and that’s a meaningfully different (and more honest) approach than a table that pretends every character has a published meaning.
Position 9: Check digit
The check digit catches typos. It’s calculated from the other 16 characters using a fixed weighting table and modulo-11 math defined by ISO 3779. We manually verified the check digit on all three real CSX VINs used to build this page, and all three passed. Mistype a single character anywhere in a CSX VIN and the math stops matching, which is why any compliant decoder will reject a corrupted VIN even if every other character looks plausible.
Position 10: Model year
The 10th character maps to model year on the standard 30-year cycle every VIN-compliant vehicle uses. Restricted to the CSX’s actual six-year production run:
| Char | Model year |
|---|---|
| 6 | 2006 |
| 7 | 2007 |
| 8 | 2008 |
| 9 | 2009 |
| A | 2010 |
| B | 2011 |
We confirmed 6, A, and B directly against real CSX VINs decoding to 2006, 2010, and 2011 respectively. The characters 7, 8, and 9 for 2007, 2008, and 2009 weren’t in our small VIN sample, but they follow the same uninterrupted ISO 3779 sequence confirmed at both ends of the run, so there’s no ambiguity or gap to account for. The letters I, O, and Q are never used in this position because they can be mistaken for 1 and 0.
Position 11: Assembly plant
All three real CSX VINs we decoded carried the same character:
| Char | Plant |
|---|---|
| H | Honda of Canada Mfg., Alliston, Ontario, Canada |
We cross-checked this against NHTSA’s PlantCity, PlantState, and PlantCountry fields for each VIN, all of which returned Alliston, Ontario, Canada. Since the CSX was built at only one factory for its entire run, this position doesn’t discriminate the way it does on nameplates assembled in multiple countries.
Positions 12 to 17: Serial number
The final six characters are the sequential production number stamped on your specific CSX as it left the Alliston line. Combined with the previous 11 characters, this makes every CSX VIN globally unique, even between two cars of the same model year, trim, and engine.
Where to find the VIN on an Acura CSX
- Lower-left corner of the windshield, visible from outside the car
- Driver’s side door jamb sticker
- Stamped on the engine bay firewall or shock tower
- Vehicle permit, registration, or insurance documents
The windshield and door jamb are the fastest to check on a used-car lot. The firewall stamp is the one to check if you suspect a re-VIN’d or cloned car; unlike an adhesive label, it’s physically tied to the vehicle.
Recalls and safety information
Because the CSX was never sold in the United States, NHTSA’s public recall lookup will not return anything useful for it, even though the underlying vPIC decoder can identify the manufacturer and plant. The authoritative source for CSX recalls is Transport Canada, which maintains its own national database independent of NHTSA. Acura Canada also runs its own VIN-based recall checker.
Documented Transport Canada campaigns affecting the CSX include a Takata airbag inflator recall covering certain 2006 to 2009 model years (part of the largest vehicle recall in Canadian history, which also touched millions of other Honda and Acura vehicles), an electric power steering (EPS) recall on certain 2006 to 2009 models over a risk of sudden loss of steering assist, and a fuel-system-related recall on certain 2011 models. Exact campaign scope varies by build date and can only be confirmed by VIN.
To check your specific CSX:
- Decode the VIN with the tool above to confirm the exact model year
- Search the 17-character VIN directly on Transport Canada’s recalls database or Acura Canada’s recall checker
- Contact your nearest Acura Canada dealer for any open campaign repair
Recall repairs are free regardless of vehicle age, mileage, or ownership history.
Frequently asked questions
How do I decode an Acura CSX VIN?
Type the 17-character VIN from the windshield, door jamb, or vehicle permit into the decoder at the top of this page. Results include model year, plant of origin, and whatever trim and engine data our external CSX reference data can match, since NHTSA’s own pattern table has no entry for this Canada-only model. No sign-up required.
Why was the Acura CSX only sold in Canada?
Acura discontinued the RSX and Integra without a direct low-cost successor in the United States, but its Canadian division wanted an entry-level sedan below the TSX to compete in that segment. The CSX filled that gap the same way its predecessor, the Acura EL, had from 1997 to 2005: both were Civic-based sedans built in Canada and sold only there. Honda never applied for US certification for either car.
Is the Acura CSX the same as the Honda Civic?
Mechanically, essentially yes. The CSX shares its platform with the 8th-generation Honda Civic Sedan built for the same North American market, with Acura-specific trim, badging, standard features, and (on the Type-S) a higher-output engine not offered on the Canadian Civic. It is not the same car as a US-market Civic, which used different base engines.
Where is the VIN on an Acura CSX?
The two easiest spots are the lower-left corner of the windshield, readable from outside the car, and the driver-side door jamb sticker. The firewall stamp in the engine bay carries the same number and is much harder to tamper with, which matters if you’re buying a used CSX privately.
Does NHTSA have recall data for my Acura CSX?
No, and this trips up a lot of owners. NHTSA’s recall lookup only covers vehicles certified for US sale, and the CSX never was. Use Transport Canada’s recall database or Acura Canada’s own VIN-based recall checker instead; both are linked in the recalls section above.
How do I tell if my CSX is a Type-S from the VIN alone?
You mostly can’t, and we’d rather say that plainly than invent a table. NHTSA has no published VDS pattern for the CSX, and the position-8 character we observed on real VINs didn’t reliably separate a base car from an i-Tech car in our sample. The decoder above cross-references outside CSX build data to return trim and engine, but if you need certainty, match the VIN against the door-jamb certification label, which lists the factory-installed engine and equipment code directly.
Is the Acura CSX VIN decoder really free?
Yes. VinDecoderPlus decodes every CSX VIN free of charge with no sign-up. A full vehicle history report (accident records, odometer history, prior ownership) is available as a paid upgrade if you need one.
Decode any Acura CSX VIN free
Type your 17-character CSX VIN into the decoder at the top of this page for an instant breakdown. To go deeper into VIN structure or check other Acura models:
- Acura VIN decoder hub for the brand-wide guide
- How to read a VIN number for the general standard
- What every character in a VIN means for a position-by-position reference
- Classic car VIN decoder for pre-1981 vehicles
- VIN decoder vs. vehicle history report for what a decode covers vs. what it doesn’t
- How to check if a car is stolen by VIN for verification steps before you buy
