The best way to deal with a blown tire is to prevent it from happening in the first place. However, eventually, a flat tire is going to occur, and it’ll most likely be when you least need it. From Procar Northwest Inc. in Redmond, WA, here’s what you need to do.

Your Vehicle Identification Number, or VIN, is essentially your car’s fingerprint. In its entirety, it is specific only to your car. Each car has its own unique VIN number and can be decoded to provide manufacturing and identification information on any vehicle on the road. Date of manufacture, manufacturer, vehicle type, where it was made, and options such as engine and transmission type, whether a car is a two or four-door, and a multitude of other specifications can be gleaned from a VIN number. Essentially, a VIN number will tell you exactly what a car is and where it came from, without even having to see the car.