Before you decode
Where to find your VIN
Every road vehicle built since the 1981 model year carries the same 17-character VIN in at least two places on the vehicle and on every document that describes it. Here is where to look, and what to do when two of them disagree.
On the vehicle
In rough order of how fast you can get to it. The first two work on almost everything on the road.
- 01
Driver-side dashboard
Stand outside the car and look through the windshield at the bottom corner nearest the driver. A small metal plate sits under the glass. This is the first place to look on any car built since the mid-1980s.
- 02
Driver door jamb
Open the driver door and read the sticker on the pillar or on the edge of the door itself. The same label carries the tire pressures, the build date and the paint code.
- 03
Under the hood
Many manufacturers stamp or sticker the VIN on the firewall, the strut tower or the front of the engine block. Useful when the dashboard plate has been obscured.
- 04
Trunk floor or spare tire well
Lift the trunk carpet. European makes in particular repeat the VIN on the floor pan here.
- 05
Chassis rail
On pickups and body-on-frame SUVs the VIN is stamped into the frame rail, usually ahead of the rear wheel on the driver side. Expect to need a flashlight and a rag.
By vehicle type
| Vehicle | Look here |
|---|---|
| Car, SUV or crossover | Windshield plate at the driver-side corner, then the driver door jamb sticker. |
| Pickup or van | Door jamb sticker first, because the windshield plate is often further inboard, then the frame rail. |
| Motorcycle | Stamped into the steering head tube, behind or below the handlebars, and repeated on a frame sticker. |
| Trailer | On a plate riveted to the tongue or the A-frame near the coupler, and often stamped into the frame itself. |
| Motorhome or RV | The chassis VIN sits where the base vehicle's does, on the dashboard or the door jamb. The coachbuilder's own serial number is separate and is not a VIN. |
| Classic, pre-1981 | Wherever that manufacturer put it: door post, firewall, or a plate on the dashboard. These numbers are shorter than 17 characters and no modern decoder can read them. |
On paper
- Vehicle title
- The legal record. If the VIN on the title does not match the VIN on the car, stop and walk away.
- Registration document
- Carried in the glove box on most vehicles; the VIN is printed alongside the plate number.
- Insurance card or policy
- Every policy is written against a specific VIN.
- Service and repair invoices
- Dealer and repair-shop paperwork prints the VIN at the top, which is a handy cross-check against the title.
- The listing itself
- Reputable dealers and most private sellers publish the VIN in the listing. A seller who will not share it is telling you something.
Read it carefully
A VIN never contains the letters I, O or Q. They were left out of the standard precisely because they are hard to tell apart from 1 and 0. So if you think you are looking at an O, it is a zero, and if you think you are looking at an I, it is a one. Those two mix-ups cause most failed decodes.
Check the number in two places before you rely on it. The dashboard plate and the door jamb sticker should be identical, and both should match the title. A plate with fresh rivets, scratched digits or a sticker that peels at the corner is worth a professional inspection.
Got the number? Decode it free and see the factory specification, or read how the check digit proves you typed it correctly.
Questions about finding a VIN
- Where is the VIN on a car?
- Look through the windshield at the driver-side corner of the dashboard, where a small metal plate is fixed under the glass. If it is not there or is not readable, open the driver door and read the sticker on the door jamb. Both carry the same 17-character number.
- Why is the VIN in more than one place on the vehicle?
- Manufacturers are required to repeat the VIN on several components so a stolen or rebuilt vehicle is harder to disguise. If the numbers in two locations disagree, or one plate looks disturbed, treat the vehicle as suspect and have it inspected before any money changes hands.
- Can I find a VIN by the license plate?
- Not from a public database. Plate-to-VIN lookups are restricted to law enforcement, insurers and licensed dealers. For a private sale, ask the seller for the VIN, which they have on the title, the registration and the insurance card.
- The VIN plate is missing. What now?
- A missing or tampered dashboard plate is a serious red flag: it is a federal offense to remove one. Check the door jamb, the firewall and the frame rail, and if the vehicle carries no readable VIN at all, do not buy it. It cannot be legally titled or insured in your name without one.
Try it on your own vehicle
Decode a VIN free, in about a second.
Year, make, model, trim, engine, drivetrain, body, plant and factory safety equipment, straight from the NHTSA database, with every character of the VIN explained. Accidents, title brands and odometer history need the full report for $5.99.
More on reading a VIN
- VIN year chart: the 10th digitEvery model-year code from 1980 to 2039 in one table, and why each letter stands for two different years.
- VIN check digit: is my VIN valid?How position 9 is calculated, why a valid VIN can still fail it, and the two typos behind almost every failure.
- WMI: the first three charactersThe World Manufacturer Identifier: what the country character means and how to read the maker code.