Find the VIN at the base of the windshield, on the driver's door-jamb sticker, or on your registration.
✅ Specs decoded — but specs won't tell you if it's been in a crash.
Pull the full history for $5.99
Crash records, branded titles, odometer rollbacks, service history and open recalls — the same national-database report others sell for $44.99, yours for $5.99.
Get the full report — $5.99What a VIN decoder can tell you — and what it can't
Those 17 characters on your Vehicle Identification Number aren't a random serial. Each position carries meaning, together spelling out how the car left the factory. Run them through a decoder and you'll get the model year, make, model, trim, body style, engine, fuel type, drivetrain, transmission and assembly plant. It's a fast way to confirm an online listing describes the actual car, double-check that a replacement part will fit, or catch a seller who has the trim wrong.
Here's the catch: the decoder can't touch the part of a car's past that affects its value. Factory specs are fixed the day the vehicle is built and never change, so they reveal nothing about crashes, a rolled-back odometer, a salvage or rebuilt title, or years of skipped maintenance. All of that is recorded later, over the vehicle's life, and it only shows up in a vehicle history report — never in the VIN alone.
Start with the free specs, then dig into the history
Decode as many VINs here as you like at no cost — it's the right first move when you're scanning listings. Once you've zeroed in on one car worth buying, order the full vehicle history report for $5.99 to unlock the accident timeline, title-brand record, odometer readings, service entries and open recalls. Wondering whether a report this cheap is the real deal? Read why a low-cost CARFAX is legit and see how it stacks up against the alternatives.
Read any VIN yourself, position by position
Every VIN made since 1981 follows the same 17-character layout, so once you know where to look you can read a lot of it without any tool. The letters I, O and Q never appear, because they're too easy to confuse with 1 and 0.
| Characters | What they mean |
|---|---|
| 1–3 | Who built it, and where. The first character is the country or region: 1, 4 and 5 are the United States, 2 is Canada, 3 is Mexico, J is Japan, K is South Korea, W is Germany. So 1HG is Honda built in the US, JTD is Toyota built in Japan and WBA is BMW built in Germany. |
| 4–8 | The vehicle itself: model line, body style, engine and safety equipment, in the maker's own code. This is the part a decoder translates into a trim and engine. |
| 9 | Check digit, a calculated value that catches typos (see below). |
| 10 | Model year, as a letter or number (chart below). |
| 11 | Assembly plant, coded by each manufacturer. |
| 12–17 | Serial number: the car's place on the production line. |
Model year codes: the 10th character
Thirty characters cycle through the years, so every code stands for two possible years, 30 years apart. On cars sold in the US and Canada, the 7th character settles it: a number there means the first year, a letter means the second. A B in 10th place means 1981 when the 7th character is a digit, and 2011 when it's a letter.
| Code | Year | Code | Year | Code | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 1980/ | L | 1990/ | 1 | 2001/ |
| B | 1981/ | M | 1991/ | 2 | 2002/ |
| C | 1982/ | N | 1992/ | 3 | 2003/ |
| D | 1983/ | P | 1993/ | 4 | 2004/ |
| E | 1984/ | R | 1994/ | 5 | 2005/ |
| F | 1985/ | S | 1995/ | 6 | 2006/ |
| G | 1986/ | T | 1996/ | 7 | 2007/ |
| H | 1987/ | V | 1997/ | 8 | 2008/ |
| J | 1988/ | W | 1998/ | 9 | 2009/ |
| K | 1989/ | X | 1999/ | ||
| Y | 2000/ |
The digit 0 and the letters U and Z are never used for the year, along with I, O and Q.
The check digit: how a VIN catches typos
The 9th character is worked out from the other 16. Each letter becomes a number (A and J are 1, B and K are 2, and so on), each position is multiplied by a fixed weight, and the total is divided by 11. The remainder is the check digit, or X when the remainder is 10. In 1HGCM82633A004352 the weighted total is 311, and 311 divided by 11 leaves 3, which matches the 9th character. Mistype a single character and the result almost never matches, which is why a decoder may warn that the check digit "does not calculate properly". When that happens, read the VIN off the car again before you trust anything else about it.
VINs from cars built for other markets
Cars built for Europe and other regions follow a looser version of the standard. The 4th to 6th characters are often just filler (ZZZ on many Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche models), the check digit usually isn't calculated, and some makers don't use the 10th character for the model year at all. The 7th-character rule doesn't apply either, so a decoder working from US data can land 30 years off: a 2011 Volkswagen Sharan can come back as a 1981. Our decoder flags these VINs and shows the year as a best guess, along with the other year the code could mean. If you're looking at an imported car, confirm the year from its registration or the build plate.
Guides that pair with this tool
- Decoders by make: Ford · Chevrolet · GMC · Toyota · Honda · Nissan · Hyundai · Kia · Subaru · Mazda · Jeep · Dodge and Ram · Tesla · BMW · Mercedes-Benz · Audi · Volkswagen · Lexus · Land Rover · Porsche — plant codes, model codes and the problem years to check for each brand
- YourVin.com — another free VIN decoder, with lookups by make and by model year
- What the 17 digits in a VIN mean — position-by-position, so the decode above makes sense
- Dealer auction VIN checks — the pre-bid routine volume buyers use
- Signs of a rolled-back odometer — what a decode can't catch and a history report can
- Is a salvage title car worth buying? — what each brand means for value and insurance
- Copart VIN check and IAA VIN check — what to look up before you bid on an auction car
- Flood car check by county — see if the car's county had a federal flood disaster since 2024, and when
- Dealer plans from $1.30 a report — for shops that check every trade-in and auction buy