Chassis numbering system explained

Very straight forward system. The 'average' chassis number looks like:

WAUZZZ8DZTA123456

Breaking that down, you can lose the 'WAUZZZ' that part of the chassis number is never really used. That now leaves: 8DZTA123456. Drop the 'Z', that isn't used either, so we're now left with the 'real' chassis number: 8DTA123456.

8D is the vehicle, in this case an A4
T is the year, in this case 1996. (A was 1980, B 1981, C 1982 and so on to the year 2001, when the letter was changed to numbers to denote the model year, 1 = 2001, 2 = 2002).

A is the factory where the car was built. A is Ingolstadt in Germany.

123456 is the actual chassis number and can be traced back to the very day the car was built.