The anatomy of 17 characters
| Positions | Name | What it encodes |
|---|---|---|
| 1-3 | WMI | World Manufacturer Identifier: who built it and in which country. Browse the registry. |
| 4-8 | VDS | Vehicle Descriptor Section: series, body style, engine, restraints - each manufacturer defines its own scheme. |
| 9 | Check digit | A checksum over the other 16 characters (North America; some other markets use position 9 differently). |
| 10 | Model year | A letter or digit in a repeating 30-year cycle: A=1980/2010, B=1981/2011... position 7 disambiguates the cycle. |
| 11 | Plant | The assembly plant, manufacturer-specific. |
| 12-17 | Serial | The sequential production number. |
The check digit, actually explained
Each character maps to a number (A=1, B=2... skipping I, O, Q; digits map to themselves). Each of the 17 positions has a weight (8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 10, 0, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2). Multiply, sum everything, take the remainder of division by 11: that remainder is the 9th character (10 is written as X). Our decoder runs this math in your browser the moment you paste a VIN, which is how it spots typos before any lookup happens.
What a VIN can and cannot tell you
Can: manufacturer, country and plant of build, model year, series/body/engine as encoded by the maker, and through the model identity, the official recall record and EPA fuel economy.
Cannot: owners, accidents, mileage or title status. Those live in government registries and licensed history databases, not in the number itself. Anyone promising "free full history from the VIN" is reselling licensed data or bluffing. In the EU, courts treat VINs linked to owners as personal data, which is exactly why this site decodes build facts only and never stores the VINs you check.
Where to find the VIN
- Base of the windshield, driver side (readable from outside)
- Driver door jamb sticker
- Vehicle registration and insurance papers
- Stamped on the chassis or engine bay plate