The VIN, or Vehicle Identification Number, is an alphanumeric code that is assigned to each vehicle produced. Although used since 1954, the following procedure has been most effective with vehicles on the road since 1981, when the international standard system was created. The VIN can tell us where and when a vehicle was produced, what type of engine and mechanics it is fitted with and other useful information. It can also be used to determine if the car has ever been involved in any type of accident. If you want to learn a quick and easy way to get information about your car or are just curious, read on.
Steps
Method 1 of 4: Find the VIN and Decode it the Easy Way
Step 1. Locate the VIN on your car and start decrypting it
You need to look for a long serial number, usually 17 characters long, printed somewhere on your vehicle. It could be in several places. You can check the directions in the list below.
- Look for a nameplate at the base of the windshield on the driver's side.
- Look for a sticker on the driver's door.
- The VIN may also be located on the cylinder head, easily visible once the hood is opened.
- In most newer vehicles, some parts such as the fenders and the hood have the VIN stamped on them for identification of parts that match the vehicle.
- Open the door on the driver's side, and see where the rearview mirror would be if the door was closed.
- In older cars the VIN may be somewhere else, for example on the steering column, the radiator support and the inside of the left wheel.
Step 2. Find information quickly by entering the VIN into a search engine
There are search engines that automatically decode the VIN of major car manufacturers. You can try VIN Decoder.net if you want to find detailed information quickly and easily.
- You can search on your production company's website, but it may not necessarily offer this service.
- If the vehicle was manufactured before 1980, it may have a non-standardized VIN. If the search engines don't work, try a paid service like CARFAX, AutoCheck or VinAudit. These should give you some information free of charge, but full decryption usually comes at a cost.
Step 3. Use a search service to determine if your car has been involved in an accident
Some specialized sites offer a consultancy service to determine if your car has suffered damage in the past from traffic accidents, fires or other causes. You cannot find this information on your own, as it is not recorded in your vehicle's VIN. For these agencies it is possible to find this information because the authorities in charge use a particular code to record information about events that cause damage to vehicles.
- First, try this free National Insurance Crime Bureau site.
- If you can't find the information you're looking for, you may have to pay to get your full vehicle report. This should be included in the services offered by the agencies mentioned above, such as VinAudit.
Step 4. You can use the other methods to decrypt it by yourself
If your car was made by a "particular" car manufacturer that search engines don't find, or if you want to try decoding yourself, follow the instructions below. Finding out where and when your car was produced is quite simple, while the other information requires a slightly more complex procedure.
The code format is standardized in the United States. In the rest of the world, most studios use the same standard format, but sometimes the ninth and tenth characters have a different meaning. In the United States, the ninth character certifies the validity and authenticity of the VIN, the tenth indicates the year of production of the vehicle
Method 2 of 4: Find Out Where and When the Vehicle Was Manufactured
Step 1. Use the first character to identify the continent of production
You may want to skip straight to identifying the country of manufacture, but this information is easy to find and remember.
- If the first character is A, B, C, D, E, F, G or H., the vehicle was produced in Africa.
- J, K, L, M, N, P or R. as the first character means that it was produced in Asia, including the Middle East. A VIN never begins with an O or a zero, as the meaning of the two symbols may be reversed.
- S, T, U, V, W, X, Y or Z it means Europe.
- 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 it means North America.
- 6 or 7 it means Australia or New Zealand. Neighboring countries like Indonesia and the Philippines are considered part of Asia in this case.
- 8 or 9 indicates the South America.
Step 2. Use the first two characters to narrow the field of investigation to the country of production and the manufacturer
Many vehicles are produced in different countries than the one in which the production company is based. Compare the first two characters of the VIN with the following table, bearing in mind the continent code mentioned above, to determine where a vehicle was actually manufactured. This will also determine which company built the car.
Some companies use the third character to indicate the manufacturer or manufacturing plant. In any case, the first two characters should be sufficient to indicate the country of production and the producer
Step 3. The 10th character indicates the model year
This method is valid for cars produced in North America and usually also for those produced in other areas. Please note that the year of issue may be after the year of production of the vehicle. The 2008 edition could mean that the car was produced in 2007 or 2008. For detailed instructions, read the following:
- If the 10th character is A, B, C, D, E, F, G, or H, it refers to the period 1980-1987 in alphabetical order, or the period 2010-2017.
- J, K, L, M and N to the editions of the period 1988-1992 or 2018-2022.
- P refers to the 1993 or 2023 edition year.
- R, S and T refer to the period 1994-1996 or 2024-2026.
- V, W, X and Y in the period 1997-2000 or 2027-2030.
- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 indicate the editions of 2001-2009 or 2031-2039.
- A VIN never uses the letters I, O and Q. Also, the number 0 and the letters U and Z are never used for the year code.
- If you are unsure of the age of your car you can check the seventh character. If it is a number it means that the vehicle was produced before 2010; if it is a letter, the model was produced after 2010 (and until 2039).
Method 3 of 4: Get More Information
Step 1. Get your car manufacturer's decoding chart
For more information, such as the production method of the engine or the manufacturing plant that assembled the vehicle, you will need to consult the manufacturer's internal decoding system.
- If you don't know the name of the production company, you can find this information in the second character of the VIN. You can find the code of most car manufacturers on vinguard or other websites.
- Try searching your car manufacturer's website for the VIN decoding table. If you can't find it, try entering "VIN decoding table" + "[company name]" in a search engine. This may be difficult - if not impossible - for some vehicles.
- Contact the information service of the production company and ask for specific information regarding the decoding of the VIN of their cars.
- Go to an authorized workshop and ask if you can consult their decoding tables. Insiders usually use these tables when repairing or replacing vehicle parts.
Step 2. The third character can indicate the vehicle type or manufacturing plant
Depending on the manufacturer, the third character of the VIN is used to indicate a specific factory, or to specify the type of vehicle. In most cases, this character simply indicates the categories "motor vehicle" or "van", or supplements the information contained in the country code, for example "manufactured by Honda Canada".
Step 3. The fourth through eighth characters provide information about some vehicle components
This is referred to as the "Vehicle Description System" or VDS. Depending on the code system of each company, they provide information on the type of engine and transmission, indicate the specifications of the model in question, and other information.
Technically, the ninth character is considered part of the "VDS", but is used to indicate the authenticity of the VIN
Step 4. The eleventh character indicates the plant in which the vehicle was assembled
If you want to know exactly in which plant the car was made, you can find this information in the eleventh character. As with the other characters in this section, you will need to get hold of the production house tables for decoding. At the beginning of this section you can find all the information about it.
Step 5. To find the car serial number and other information, analyze the 12th to 17th characters
Each manufacturer uses this part of the code independently. Usually, this part of the code contains a 6-digit number which corresponds to the vehicle's serial.
- Some manufacturers use the serial in continuous series, while others restart every year from the number 000001.
- The tenth to seventeenth characters make up the Vehicle Identification Section.
Method 4 of 4: Check if the VIN is Genuine or Fake
Step 1. You can use online software to check if the VIN is genuine
You can find it with any search engine; enter the complete VIN code, remembering to use capital letters.
- If you want to try this yourself, please follow the instructions below.
- Some used car salespeople sometimes substitute the VIN to hide any accidents that have occurred to the vehicle in the past. With the use of online software it is easy to find out if the VIN in question is fake, but it may happen that the VIN has been replaced with that of a car of the same model.
Step 2. Consider the function of the ninth character
The ninth character has an authentication function, which is required in North America, but is commonly used around the world. This character, if inserted in a simple spreadsheet, serves to certify the authenticity of the VIN.
- Please note: the ninth character must be a number or the letter "X". If it is another letter there are the following possibilities: the VIN is not authentic; the car was produced before 1980 and uses another standard; the car was not produced in North America and, in this case, the manufacturer did not use the international coding system.
- Make a note of the ninth character, which you will use at the end of the operation to check the authenticity of the VIN.
Step 3. Replace each letter with a number following the table below
The first thing to do is to replace each letter of the VIN with a number that can be used for our calculation. Use the table below, keeping the characters you replace in the same order. If your VIN starts with AK6, you need to replace it with 126.
- A and J must be replaced with 1
- B, K and S must be replaced with 2
- C, L and T must be replaced with 3
- D, M and U must be replaced with 4
- E, N and V must be replaced with 5
- F and W must be replaced with 6
- G, P and X must be replaced with 7
- H and Y must be replaced with 8
- R and Z must be replaced with 9
- If the letters I, O and Q are present in the VIN, it is certainly false. In a genuine VIN these letters are never used, as they may be confused with a number. In this case you don't need to go any further, as the VIN is certainly fake.
Step 4. Write the new 17-number sequence
Leave ample space under the numbers, and between one number and another. Use the sheet horizontally, so you can write the whole sequence without going to the head.
Step 5. Under the code you just wrote, write the following sequence, writing each number in a column with each digit of the code:
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 10 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2. Keep this order exactly. Consider that "10" is a single number, and must be written in a column under a single character of the code.
Step 6. Multiply each pair of numbers in a column
Each digit of the upper line must be multiplied by the corresponding figure of the lower line. Write the results of each operation separately; avoid forming a third row of numbers in sequence. Look at this example:
- A (fake) VIN with letters replaced by numbers as described above: 4 2 3 2 2 6 3 4 2 2 6 3 2 0 0 0 1
- The series of multipliers: 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 10 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
- Multiply 4x8 (the first numbers of the two lines) to get 32. Multiply 2x7 (the second pair) to get 14. Continue until you get the following result: 32; 14; 18; 10; 8; 18; 6; 40; 0; 18; 48; 21; 12; 0; 0; 0; 2.
Step 7. Add up all the numbers in the list
Add up all the numbers obtained from multiplication.
In our example we get the following: 32 + 14 + 18 + 10 + 8 + 18 + 6 + 40 + 0 + 18 + 48 + 21 + 12 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 2 = 247.
Step 8. Divide the result by 11 and write the "remainder"
Use whole numbers only, without dividing into decimals. You can use a calculator, division by column or do the calculation in mind.
- 'Note ": If the remainder is" 10 ", replace it with an" X ".
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Returning to our example, 247/11 = 22 with remainder 5. Write
Step 5..
- If you use a calculator that divides by decimals, and you are not sure how to calculate the remainder, use an online calculator.
Step 9. Check the ninth character of the VIN
If it matches the remainder of the division, the VIN is genuine. If not, the VIN is probably fake. It is certainly untrue if the car it belongs to was produced in North America after 1980.
- Note that if the remainder is 10, the ninth character of the VIN must be an "X", as the manufacturer cannot use a two-digit number (10) as a control number.
- In our example, the fifth character of the VIN is 2 but our remainder is 5. These two numbers do not match, so the VIN must be false.
Advice
- Decode tables for cars with petrol engines are available online.
- To more easily read the VIN positioned at the base of the windshield, it is advisable to stand outside the vehicle. Remember that the letters I (i), O (o) and Q (q) are never used, to avoid being confused with the numbers 1 and 0.
