Certcar
Check VIN

Free VIN decoder.

Enter the VIN and see which car it is: the make, model, manufacturer, country of origin, year and what each of the 17 characters means.

Enter the VIN (17 characters)

Don't have the VIN to hand? See where to find it

Decoding result
·················
Enter the VIN
Make and model
—
Manufacturer
—
Country of origin
—
Region
—
Model year
—
Plant (pos. 11)
—
WMI · manufacturer
—
VDS · description
—
VIS · identification
—
Serial number
—
The full report addsHistory
  • Mileage
  • Damage
  • Service history
  • Theft check
  • Inspection
  • Market value

Decode for free, then decide whether you want the history. See a sample report

What the VIN decoder tells you.

The VIN stays the same for the car's whole life. Read correctly, it tells you which car you have in front of you before you look at its history.

  • Confirm the car in the ad

    The make, model and year in the VIN must match the ad and the registration document. If they differ, ask before you travel.

  • Find out where it was built

    The manufacturer, country and region of origin. The country of manufacture isn't necessarily the country the car is imported from.

  • Read the VIN structure

    The manufacturer code, model description, year character, plant code and serial number, separated and explained.

  • Get ready for the full check

    You have the right VIN and know which car it is. From here, the full report searches its history by the same VIN.

The 17 characters, one by one.

The VIN has three parts: WMI (the manufacturer), VDS (the vehicle description) and VIS (the specific car). Tap a character to see what its position means.

The letters I, O and Q never appear in a VIN, so they can't be confused with 1 and 0.

Tap a characterExample VIN
WMI · Position 1W

Geographic region

The first character shows the region where the car was built: S–Z Europe, J–R Asia, 1–5 North America. Together with the second character it indicates the country.

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Where to find the VIN.

The safest place to copy it from is field E of the registration document. On the car, read it at the base of the windscreen and on the driver's door pillar.

  • Registration document, field E
  • Base of the windscreen
  • Driver's door pillar
The full guide: where to find the VIN

VIN decoder or full report.

The decoder tells you which car it is. The report tells you what it has been through: mileage, damage, service and the rest of the history linked to the same VIN.

  • Make, model and yearVIN decoderIncluded freeReportCheck included
  • Manufacturer, country and plantVIN decoderIncluded freeReportCheck included
  • Factory equipment listVIN decoderNot included in VIN decodingReportCheck included
  • Mileage historyVIN decoderNot included in VIN decodingReportCheck included
  • Service historyVIN decoderNot included in VIN decodingReportCheck included
  • Damage from several countriesVIN decoderNot included in VIN decodingReportCheck included
  • Theft checkVIN decoderNot included in VIN decodingReportCheck included
  • Legal status and inspectionVIN decoderNot included in VIN decodingReportCheck included
  • Commercial useVIN decoderNot included in VIN decodingReportCheck included
  • Estimated market valueVIN decoderNot included in VIN decodingReportCheck included
See a sample report →Prices →
VIN decoding questions.
Short answers about what you can read from a VIN.
A tool that reads the 17-character VIN and turns it into information about the car: the manufacturer, country, model, year and the VIN structure (WMI, VDS, VIS).
Yes. Decoding is free and you don't need an account. You only pay if you want the full history report.
When we don't have a piece of information for the VIN entered, the field stays empty instead of being guessed. The VIN structure (WMI, VDS, VIS, serial number) is always read directly from the VIN.
Often, but not for every make. Position 10 encodes the model year on makes that use it that way. When the year is confirmed in our data, the result marks it. The year of first registration is on the registration document.
No. The VIN describes the car as it left the factory, not what happened to it afterwards. Mileage, damage, service, theft, inspection and market value are in the full report.
For any 17-character VIN. How many fields we fill in depends on the make and model.
Compare the make, model and year with the ad and the registration document. If they match and you want to know what the car has been through, go on to the full report straight from the result.
Didn't find the answer?
See all frequently asked questions

Next.

You know which car it is. Now see what it has been through.

Enter the VIN for the full report: mileage, damage, service, theft, inspection and market value.

Enter VIN number (17 characters)