Type, paste or scan a 17-character VIN. See make, model, year, engine and factory in seconds.
A VIN is a compressed build record. Decoding it tells you exactly what left the assembly line, so you can catch a mismatched listing before you hand over money.
Example decode
Sample VIN
Live results come from NHTSA's vPIC database.
Standing next to the car? Tap a spot. Check at least two of them. They should match exactly.
Look through the windshield at the lower corner in front of the steering wheel. A metal tag is riveted to the dash. It's the easiest spot to read from outside the car, and zooming in with your phone camera helps in bright sun.
Open the driver door and look at the B-pillar or the edge of the door. The safety certification sticker lists the VIN, often with a barcode you can scan with this site on Android Chrome.
Pop the hood and check the firewall, the front of the engine block or the radiator support. The location varies by maker. Older cars and many trucks have it stamped here.
On trucks, trailers and motorcycles the VIN is often stamped on the frame rail, near a rear wheel well, on a trailer tongue or on the steering head of a motorcycle.
Every position has a job, set by the ISO 3779 standard and U.S. federal rule 49 CFR Part 565. Tap a section to see what it encodes.
The first character is the region or country of manufacture. The second is the manufacturer, and the third is usually the vehicle type or division. Low-volume makers (under 1,000 vehicles a year) use a 9 in position 3 and carry an extra code in positions 12–14.
Five characters the manufacturer uses to describe the vehicle: model line, series, body type, engine and restraint system. Each maker defines its own scheme, which is why decoding needs a manufacturer database like NHTSA's vPIC.
Each character is converted to a number, multiplied by a positional weight, summed and divided by 11. The remainder, 0–9 or X for 10, must equal position 9. A mismatch means a typo or a VIN that deserves a closer look.
One letter or digit maps to the model year and repeats every 30 years. For North American cars and light trucks, a digit in position 7 points to 1980–2009 and a letter points to 2010–2039. The full chart is below.
The manufacturer's code for the factory that built the vehicle. It's useful for recall campaigns, which are often limited to one plant and date range.
The serial number of this vehicle on the production line. Combined with the first eleven characters it makes the VIN unique. For low-volume makers, positions 12–14 complete the manufacturer code.
The 10th character of every VIN. The letters I, O, Q, U and Z and the digit 0 are never used here.
Which cycle? On North American cars and light trucks, check position 7. If it's a number the vehicle is from 1980–2009, and if it's a letter it's from 2010–2039. The highlighted code is the current calendar year.
Most used-car scams leave a trace in the VIN. Do these before any money changes hands.
A decoder tells you how the car was built. A history report tells you what has happened to it since. You usually want both, and only one of them costs money.
| What you learn | Free decode | History report |
|---|---|---|
| Make, model, year, trim | ||
| Engine, drivetrain, body | ||
| Assembly plant | ||
| VIN validity (check digit) | ||
| Accidents & damage | ||
| Salvage, flood, lemon titles | ||
| Odometer history | ||
| Typical cost | $0 | $25–$45 |
Recalls are free for everyone at NHTSA.gov/recalls. Every result here links straight to it.
The first three characters of a VIN name the manufacturer. Search by code, brand or country.
No match in this list. Decode the full VIN above and NHTSA's database will identify the maker.
Still stuck? Most answers come down to the position of a single character.
A VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) is a unique 17-character code assigned to every car, truck, motorcycle and trailer built for road use since 1981. It identifies the manufacturer, vehicle attributes, model year, assembly plant and a serial number, so no two vehicles built within 30 years share the same VIN.
Yes. Decoding is free with no account and no limit. Vehicle specifications come from the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) vPIC database, which is public data.
Look through the windshield at the lower driver-side corner of the dashboard, or open the driver door and check the sticker on the door jamb. The VIN is also printed on the title, registration card and insurance card. See the car diagram above.
A decoded VIN shows the manufacturer, make, model, model year, trim or series, body style, engine size and cylinders, fuel type, drive type, transmission, and the country and city of the assembly plant.
A VIN decoder reads what the manufacturer encoded in the VIN: how the vehicle was built. A vehicle history report is a paid product that adds what happened after it left the factory, such as accidents, title brands, odometer readings and ownership changes.
I, O and Q are excluded because they are easily confused with the numbers 1 and 0. If you type one of them here, the decoder converts it to the matching digit automatically.
The 9th character is a check digit calculated from the other 16 characters using a weighted formula. If the check digit doesn't match, the VIN was probably mistyped, or it may have been altered.
Vehicles built before 1981 used manufacturer-specific serial numbers of varying length, typically 5 to 13 characters. This decoder supports the standardized 17-character format used since the 1981 model year.
Yes. Any 17-character VIN for a vehicle sold in the United States can be decoded, including motorcycles, heavy trucks, buses, trailers and RVs. The amount of detail depends on what the manufacturer reported to NHTSA.
After decoding, tap Check recalls to open NHTSA's official recall lookup with your VIN filled in. It lists unrepaired safety recalls from the past 15 years for free.
No two vehicles built within the same 30-year window share a VIN. Because model year codes repeat every 30 years, a 1990 and a 2020 vehicle could in theory share a code, but position 7 is used to tell those cycles apart.
Always. Make sure the VIN on the dashboard, the door jamb and the title all match, that the decoded year, model and engine match the listing, and that there are no open recalls. Then run a free theft check and consider a paid history report. See the five-minute checklist.
