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Questions
What is a VIN?
A vehicle identification number: the 17-character code that identifies one car, truck, motorcycle or trailer. The format is set by the ISO 3779 standard, and in the United States by federal rule 49 CFR Part 565. Every vehicle sold in North America since the 1981 model year has one, and most of the world uses the same format.
What does each part of a VIN mean?
Characters 1 to 3 are the world manufacturer identifier: the region, the country and the maker. Characters 4 to 8 describe the vehicle, such as the model, body, engine and restraints, in a way each maker chooses. Character 9 is the check digit, 10 is the model year, 11 is the assembly plant, and 12 to 17 are the serial number.
Why are there no I, O or Q in a VIN?
They're too easy to mix up with 1 and 0, so the standard leaves them out. If you see what looks like an O, it's a zero. This tool points out an I, O or Q and can swap them for you.
How is the check digit worked out?
Each letter is given a value (A and J are 1, B, K and S are 2, and so on; digits keep their own value), and each position has a weight: 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 10, then 0 for the check digit itself, then 9 down to 2. Multiply each value by its weight, add up the results and divide by 11. The remainder is the check digit, and a remainder of 10 is written X. It's required on vehicles for North America and China. It catches most typing mistakes, but not a swap between characters with the same value, such as A, J and 1.
How do I tell the model year from a VIN?
The 10th character. Letters A to Y (skipping I, O, Q, U and Z) stand for 1980 to 2000 and the digits 1 to 9 for 2001 to 2009; then the cycle starts again, with A for 2010. To tell the cycles apart on cars, and on SUVs, vans and trucks up to 10,000 lb, made for North America, the 7th character is a letter from 2010 on and a digit before. The model year can be a year after the vehicle was built.
Can a VIN tell me the vehicle's history?
Not by itself. The VIN describes how the vehicle was built, not what happened to it. Accident, theft, title and odometer records are kept by states, insurers and history services. In the US you can look up open safety recalls for one exact VIN on nhtsa.gov, which this tool links to.
Does this show the recalls for my exact car?
It lists every recall NHTSA has for the model and year, which is what its open data allows. A recall may cover only some of those vehicles, and yours may already have been fixed, so use the link to nhtsa.gov to check the exact VIN, or ask a dealer.
Why does my European or Asian VIN show less detail?
NHTSA's decoder covers vehicles made for the US market. For others it usually knows the maker from the first 3 characters, and this tool can still find the region and country, and often the model year, but the model and engine are coded in a way only the maker publishes. Many makers outside North America and China also fill position 9 with a letter instead of a check digit.
Is it safe to type my VIN here?
A VIN isn't secret: it's printed on the dashboard, where anyone can read it through the windshield. This tool checks it in your browser, and at 17 characters sends it to the free decoder run by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Nothing is saved or put in the page address.
What about cars built before 1981?
Before the 17-character standard, each maker used its own format, of different lengths and with no check digit. Those can't be decoded here.
Free VIN decoder: decode any 17-character vehicle identification number to see the make, model, year, engine, body and where it was built, check the check digit, look up recalls, crash test ratings and owner complaints from NHTSA, and check a whole list of VINs at once.