VIN decoder
Enter a 17-character VIN and we will decode it against NHTSA’s vPIC database — the same public dataset manufacturers file their build information into — and then show you the recall, complaint and safety records we hold for that make, model and year.
Your VIN stays private. It is sent to this site only to be decoded, it is never part of a page we publish, and no page on RoadVitals is ever created for a VIN. If a VIN does reach the address bar — handed over from the search box, or pasted in — it is stripped out before the lookup runs. We do not store the VIN itself: the decode cache is keyed on a salted hash, which can answer “have we seen this before” and nothing else.
What a VIN decode does and does not tell you
A decode, a recall, an owner complaint and an investigation are four different things
What the decode gives you
A VIN encodes how a vehicle was built: manufacturer, model year, body style, engine, drivetrain and assembly plant. That is factory configuration. It says nothing about how the vehicle has been maintained, whether it has been in a crash, or what condition it is in now.
Recalls are decided per VIN
A safety recall is issued when a manufacturer or NHTSA determines that a vehicle has a safety-related defect or does not comply with a federal motor vehicle safety standard. Recall repairs are free. Whether a specific vehicle is covered depends on its VIN — a recall listed for a model year does not necessarily apply to every vehicle of that year.
Complaints are owner reports
Complaints are reports submitted to NHTSA by owners and drivers. NHTSA does not verify most reports before publishing them, and a complaint does not establish that a defect exists. Volume is influenced by how many of a vehicle were sold, how long it has been on the road, and how much attention an issue has received.
An investigation is not a finding
NHTSA opens an investigation to examine whether a safety defect may exist. An open investigation is not a determination that a defect exists, and many investigations close without a recall. Investigations can, however, lead to one.
Where to find a VIN
The same 17 characters appear in several places on and around the vehicle
- On a plate at the base of the windscreen, driver’s side, readable from outside the vehicle.
- On the sticker inside the driver’s door jamb, with the tyre placard.
- On the vehicle title, registration and insurance documents.
- Stamped on the engine bay firewall or the frame on many vehicles.
If the characters you have include an I, an O or a Q, they are almost certainly a 1, a 0 or a 0 — those three letters are excluded from the VIN alphabet precisely because they are confusable.
How the 17 characters are structured
ISO 3779, the standard every VIN issued since 1981 follows
| Position | Name | What it encodes |
|---|---|---|
| 1–3 | World manufacturer identifier | Country, manufacturer and vehicle class of the plant that built it. |
| 4–8 | Vehicle descriptor section | Model, body style, engine, restraint system — the fields this tool decodes. |
| 9 | Check digit | Calculated from the other sixteen characters to detect transcription errors. |
| 10 | Model year | A single letter or digit on a 30-year cycle, which is why year alone is ambiguous. |
| 11 | Plant code | The specific assembly plant. Recalls are frequently scoped by plant and build date. |
| 12–17 | Serial number | Identifies the individual vehicle. This is the part we never store or display back. |
The check digit is arithmetic derived from the other sixteen characters, which is how a mistyped VIN is caught before it is sent anywhere. It is mandatory in North America but not applied consistently elsewhere, so we report a failed check as a warning rather than refusing the lookup.