Make, model, year, country and plant from the 17 characters — right in the browser. The full report for this car is one click away.
Enter all 17 VIN characters — the breakdown appears instantly
VIN decoding, make, model, year and factory data are open in the free report.
A real car from our database. Open the free report for this car →
The first three characters (WMI) — who built the car and where.
Cars with the same VIN beginning are the same model.
For cars whose manufacturer publishes the specification.
| Free | Full report | |
|---|---|---|
| VIN structure decoding | ||
| Make, model, year | ||
| Factory data | ||
| Registration history and owners | ||
| Accidents with scene photos | ||
| Mileage readings by date | ||
| US auction lot | ||
| Market value |
ISO 3779 standard: 17 characters without the letters I, O and Q.
What each position encodes
| Char | Meaning | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Region | A–C Africa · J–R Asia · S–Z Europe · 1–5 North America · 6–7 Oceania · 8–9 South America |
| 2 | Country | W — Germany, VF — France, TM — Czechia, J — Japan, K — Korea, L — China, 1/4/5 — USA, 2 — Canada, 3 — Mexico |
| 3 | Manufacturer | With the first two — the WMI code: WVW Volkswagen, WBA BMW, TMB Škoda, JTD Toyota, KMH Hyundai |
| 4–8 | Attributes (VDS) | Model, body, engine, trim — each manufacturer has its own coding |
| 9 | Check digit | Mandatory for the USA, Canada and Mexico; European and Asian manufacturers usually put an ordinary character here |
| 10 | Model year | A letter or digit from the table below; some European manufacturers do not encode the year |
| 11 | Plant | The manufacturer’s assembly plant code |
| 12–17 | Serial number | Unique number of the car within the plant and year |
10th VIN character → year
| 10th char | Year | or |
|---|---|---|
| A | 1980 | 2010 |
| B | 1981 | 2011 |
| C | 1982 | 2012 |
| D | 1983 | 2013 |
| E | 1984 | 2014 |
| F | 1985 | 2015 |
| G | 1986 | 2016 |
| H | 1987 | 2017 |
| J | 1988 | 2018 |
| K | 1989 | 2019 |
| L | 1990 | 2020 |
| M | 1991 | 2021 |
| N | 1992 | 2022 |
| P | 1993 | 2023 |
| R | 1994 | 2024 |
| S | 1995 | 2025 |
| T | 1996 | 2026 |
| V | 1997 | 2027 |
| W | 1998 | 2028 |
| X | 1999 | 2029 |
| Y | 2000 | 2030 |
| 1 | 2001 | 2031 |
| 2 | 2002 | 2032 |
| 3 | 2003 | 2033 |
| 4 | 2004 | 2034 |
| 5 | 2005 | 2035 |
| 6 | 2006 | 2036 |
| 7 | 2007 | 2037 |
| 8 | 2008 | 2038 |
| 9 | 2009 | 2039 |
Codes repeat every 30 years: “A” is 1980 or 2010 — the VIN pattern tells which. The year code never uses I, O, Q, U, Z or 0.
The VIN on the body, the sticker and the registration certificate must match exactly.
Registration history, owners, accidents, market analytics and available checks — by VIN or plate. What is included depends on the car.
The vehicle identification number: 17 characters the manufacturer assigns to every car. It encodes the region and country of assembly, the manufacturer, the model-year code, the plant and the serial number. There are no letters I, O and Q in a VIN — they look like digits.
Enter the VIN in the field above. The decoder instantly shows the structure: region, country, manufacturer, year and check digit. The free report adds the make, model and year by the VIN pattern, the factory data and what we know about this car.
The make and model are determined by the VIN pattern: cars with the same first characters are the same model. For cars where the manufacturer publishes factory data, the report also shows the engine, fuel, gearbox, drive type, body and trim.
The 10th character is the model year, which often starts in autumn of the previous calendar year. European manufacturers (Renault, Peugeot, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota for Europe) usually do not encode the year at all — then the report determines it by the VIN pattern.
The 9th character is a check digit for cars from the USA, Canada and Mexico. European and Asian manufacturers usually do not use it, so a mismatch for them is not an error.
Yes. Beyond decoding, the LevelCar report shows registration history and owners, recorded accidents with photos, mileage readings by date, the US auction lot and the market value — in the full report.