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VIN guides

Short, practical guides to reading a VIN, finding it on a vehicle, and understanding what the codes tell you.

Diagram of a 17-character VIN split into the WMI (characters 1–3), VDS (4–9) and VIS (10–17) sections
What each digit in a VIN means

A plain-English guide to all 17 characters of a VIN: the maker code, vehicle details, check digit, model year, plant…

Chart showing VIN model year codes A to Y and 1 to 9 with their years from 1980 to 2039
VIN year chart

Find any vehicle’s model year from the 10th character of its VIN. A complete chart from 1980 to 2039, plus the simple…

Top-down car illustration marking VIN locations on the windshield, driver door jamb and engine bay
Where to find the VIN number

The quickest places to find a VIN on a car, truck, motorcycle, trailer or RV, plus which documents show it and what to…

Chart of VIN first characters and the countries they represent, including 1, 4 and 5 for the United States, J for Japan and W for Germany
VIN country codes

The first character of a VIN shows where a vehicle was built. See the full list of VIN country codes, how the second…