I found a site that gives a great explanation of what the various parts of the VIN mean. My one area of confusion relates to the last six numbers, which the site indicates is the sequential production number.

281823 is the last six of mine.

This surely doesn't mean they built 281,000 of these cars. Does it?

 

I just learned something else from another site. Apparently there is a number at the top of the window sticker that indicates the build date and begins with a numeral 1.

Here's mine: 120111122

Is it safe to assume the build date is 11/22/2011?

 

It's just a randomly assigned number, not how many have been produced so far. Not sure about the build date number though...