VIN decoder and VIN check: what a vehicle identification number tells you

What a VIN is

The vehicle identification number, VIN for short, is the code a manufacturer assigns to a vehicle to identify it. A VIN of the international standard has seventeen characters, letters and digits. A copied or altered VIN can point to another vehicle.

Vehicle rules of the European Union and of the United States, among others, require a VIN of this structure for the vehicles they cover. A VIN of this standard does not use the letters I, O and Q.

Some documents, sellers and parts catalogues use the words chassis number or frame number for a vehicle identifier; those words can also refer to identifiers that are not VINs. Not every vehicle has a VIN of this standard: some older vehicles have a chassis number in the manufacturer's own format, which can be shorter, and vehicles built for the Japanese home market can carry a frame number in a format of its own instead of a VIN.

Decoding a VIN and checking a VIN are different things. A VIN decoder reads what the characters themselves stand for. A VIN check searches for records that others have kept about the vehicle under its VIN, and some providers call its result a vehicle history report.

What the characters stand for

The seventeen characters form three sections. What a character means is set partly by the standard and partly by each manufacturer, and it differs between manufacturers, markets and production years.

• Characters one to three, the world manufacturer identifier, identify the manufacturer. The region or country the code stands for does not necessarily show where the vehicle was assembled. Some manufacturers have a code for small production, whose third character is the digit nine; further characters later in the VIN then identify the manufacturer.
• Characters four to nine, the vehicle descriptor section, describe the vehicle in the manufacturer's own system, for example the model line, the body, the engine type, the gearbox or the restraint systems; where the ninth character is a check digit, it describes nothing. Some manufacturers fill some of these places with characters that carry no meaning.
• On vehicles for the North American market and some other markets, the ninth character is a check digit, calculated from the other characters, which can reveal a mistake made in copying the VIN. Manufacturers elsewhere need not use one.
• Characters ten to seventeen form the vehicle indicator section, which, together with the rest of the VIN, is intended to identify the single vehicle. On vehicles for the North American market, the tenth character gives the model year and the eleventh the assembly plant. Manufacturers elsewhere can use this section in their own way, and some use these two places in the same way. The section can include a serial number.

The model year is not necessarily the year of manufacture or of first registration. Depending on the manufacturer and the market, a model year can begin before the calendar year of the same name, and a vehicle can be registered for the first time long after it was built.

A decoder that reads the characters is only as good as what it knows of that manufacturer's system. Where it does not know the system, it can show the manufacturer and little else, or describe the vehicle wrongly. A decoded model, body or engine that does not match the vehicle is a reason to look more closely, and the manufacturer or a dealer of the make may be able to say what the VIN stands for.

What records kept under a VIN can show

Records about a vehicle can be kept under its VIN, for example by registration authorities, inspection bodies, insurers, workshops, vehicle manufacturers and their dealers, and auction houses, and advertisements can state it. A VIN check looks for such records in the sources its provider can access. Such checks are offered by commercial providers, and in some countries public registers also give some of these records. Depending on the provider and on the countries the vehicle has been registered in, a report can contain the following.

• Mileage readings: odometer readings with their dates, recorded at inspections, services, repairs, registrations or sales. A reading lower than an earlier one, or one that does not fit the readings before and after it, can point to a manipulated odometer. It can also come from a typing error in a record, from readings in miles and in kilometres being mixed, or from a replaced instrument cluster, so a doubtful reading is a reason to ask for the documents behind it.
• Accidents and damage: damage recorded in insurance claims, repair estimates or auction listings, depending on the source with the date, the damaged areas, the estimated repair cost or photos.
• Total loss and scrapping: whether an insurer declared the vehicle a total loss, and whether it was recorded as scrapped, dismantled or permanently taken off the register. In some countries the vehicle's registration or title records carry a mark for such a loss, or for flood or fire damage.
• Theft: whether the vehicle is or was recorded as stolen in the databases the check searches.
• Registrations and imports: the countries the vehicle was registered in, the dates of its first and later registrations, and its imports and exports. In some countries a report also gives the number of registered keepers or owners.
• Earlier use: whether a register or another record shows use as a taxi, a rental car, a driving-school car, a police vehicle or for another commercial purpose.
• Finance: in some countries, whether a loan, a lease or another claim of a lender is recorded on the vehicle. Depending on the country's law, the lender can then claim the vehicle from a buyer.
• Inspections: the dates and results of periodic roadworthiness inspections, with the defects found, where the inspection bodies' records are available.
• Service and repair history: services and repairs that workshops or the manufacturer's dealers recorded, with their dates and odometer readings. Work by a workshop that shares no records, or by the owner, can be missing.
• Recalls and service campaigns: whether the vehicle is affected by a recall or by a service campaign of the manufacturer, and whether the work is recorded as done. What is recorded and who can look it up depends on the manufacturer and the country; in some countries recalls can also be looked up by VIN with a public body or a trade association.
• Warranty: where such records are available, whether a manufacturer's warranty or an extended warranty is recorded for the vehicle, and when it ends.
• Original equipment: the manufacturer's records, where available, can show details such as the equipment, the paint and the interior the vehicle was built with, its engine and gearbox, its production date or the market it was built for. Such records describe the vehicle as it was built, not changes made since.
• Technical data: depending on the source, data from the type approval or the registration, such as the power, the weights, the emission class and the fuel.
• Earlier advertisements: photos and descriptions from earlier sale listings or auctions, which can show the vehicle's condition, equipment and odometer reading at that time.
• Valuation: some providers estimate a market value from the vehicle's data and history. Such an estimate is the provider's own calculation.
• Known faults of the model: some reports add general information about the model, such as problems reported for it. That describes the model, not the particular vehicle.

No report contains all of these records for every vehicle. What a report contains depends on what was recorded in the first place, on the countries the vehicle has been in, on its age and on the sources its provider can access.

When a VIN check is worth it

• Before buying a used car: compare the VIN on the vehicle with its documents and with the advertisement, then check its records for mileage readings, damage, a total loss, theft, finance and imports. Compare the model, the model year and the equipment that the decoder and the records give with what the seller describes. What you find can be a reason not to buy, or a basis for negotiating the price.
• Before buying an imported vehicle or one from another country: records from the countries it was registered in can show mileage readings and damage that the records of the new country lack. The market the vehicle was built for, where the manufacturer's records give it, can matter for registering the vehicle and for its parts, but does not by itself show whether the vehicle meets the rules of another market.
• Before selling: a report shows buyers the records its provider can access, and the original equipment, where the manufacturer's records show it, can help to describe the vehicle in the advertisement; check it against the vehicle as it is now.
• When ordering parts: a VIN is given to identify one vehicle, while a model name covers many vehicles. A copied or altered VIN can point to another vehicle, so compare the VIN on the vehicle with its documents. Depending on the manufacturer, the manufacturer's records for it can name details such as the model, the model year, the engine and gearbox, the equipment and the production date, and its parts catalogue can be searched with the VIN. Some parts change during a model's production, and a supplier's catalogue can state a range of VINs as one of a part's conditions, to be compared with the vehicle's VIN together with the others.
• For paint and body repairs: the manufacturer's records, where available, may name the paint the vehicle was built with, which matters for paintwork and for parts supplied in the vehicle's colour. If the vehicle has been painted in another colour since, the records no longer describe it.
• After buying, and from time to time: to see whether the records available to you show open recalls or service campaigns, the end of the warranty or the service history.
• Keys and control units: depending on the vehicle and the procedure, a replacement key or a replacement control unit may need to be coded to the vehicle, and the VIN can be among the data needed for that.
• Insurance: an insurer may identify the vehicle by its VIN, and the equipment the vehicle was built with can matter for its insured value.
• Registration and inspection: authorities and inspectors can compare the VIN on the vehicle with its documents, and depending on the country's rules, a VIN that is illegible, altered or different from the documents can stop a registration or fail an inspection.
• Older and classic vehicles: the manufacturer's records or archive, where available, may show details such as the engine, the gearbox or the paint the vehicle was built with, to compare with those it has now. A decoder made for the standard may not read the formats of older vehicles.

Check the VIN on the vehicle itself

A report shows records kept under the VIN, which do not necessarily belong to the vehicle in front of you. A stolen vehicle can carry a VIN copied from a similar vehicle that is legally registered, and a check of that VIN then shows the other vehicle's records.

Where the VIN is marked depends on the manufacturer and the model. Places it can be found:

• On a plate or a label of the manufacturer, for example on a door pillar or in the engine compartment.
• Stamped or marked on the body or the frame, in a place that can be under a cover or a floor covering.
• On some vehicles behind the windscreen, at its lower edge, readable from outside.
• Depending on the vehicle, stored in its control units, where diagnostic equipment can read it.
• In documents that can state it: the registration certificate, the certificate of conformity, the insurance documents, the service records and the purchase contract. Registration certificates in the common format of the European Union print it under the letter E.

Compare the characters in each place you can inspect safely. A VIN that differs between the vehicle and its documents, a plate, label or stamping that looks altered, replaced or reworked, and a decoded model, body or engine that does not match the vehicle are reasons not to go ahead until the cause is clear.

Do not buy a vehicle whose VIN differs from the one in its documents, or looks altered, until the difference has been explained. Ask the registration authority or the police how to have it checked.

What a VIN check cannot prove

• A report without entries of damage, theft or doubtful readings does not show that none happened. Damage repaired without an insurance claim, and mileage that no one recorded, can leave no record.
• A report shows records, not the vehicle's condition now: wear, corrosion, the quality of a repair or a faulty part do not appear in it.
• Records can be wrong: a reading or a VIN can be mistyped where it was recorded.
• Records of the vehicle as it was built describe its original equipment and engine. Parts and equipment replaced since are not in them.
• Coverage differs between countries and providers, and the records of one country do not always reach a check made in another.

Whatever a report says, have a used vehicle inspected by an independent workshop or an inspection body, and test drive it, before you buy it.

The VIN on this site

This site does not search by vehicle identification number and does not decode one. Here you choose a make and a model series, then compare the vehicles listed for the series by engine code, power and production period.

Depending on the manufacturer and on the decoder or the records available, the VIN may help you make that choice by showing details such as the model, the model year or the engine.

The parts lists on our vehicle pages are built from the catalogues of aftermarket suppliers, with the fitment conditions as the suppliers state them, and a supplier can restrict a part to a range of vehicle identification numbers or chassis numbers. Where a supplier states such a range, the list shows it with the part number as the supplier writes it, which can name only some of the characters of a VIN. Compare the characters it names, together with the part's other conditions; a VIN within the range does not by itself confirm that the part fits. Where you are unsure, ask the part's supplier or a dealer of the make.

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