I live in Thailand and this week purchased a new Ford Focus TDCi 5Dr 2.0L Sport. The car is great but firstly I cannot find a metal VIN plate. There is a plastic sticker on the door pillar and the number is etched on the side of a component under the bonnet. The Ford dealership said it doesn't have a metal VIN plate. The main problem, however, is that when I entered the VIN into several of the free VIN check sites, each one stated the VIN was invalid. I researched how the VIN is composed and from what I have read, the ninth character is the check digit, arrived at by multiplying predetermined letter values by a weighted number, dividing by 11 and the remainder should be the ninth character unless the remainder is 0 when an X is used. My ninth character is A. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.