If the first character is an A, B, C, D, E, F, G, or H, the vehicle was made in Africa. J, K, L, M, N, P, or R as the first character means the vehicle was made in Asia. This includes the Middle East. Note that a VIN never begins with a zero or O due to the ease of confusing these two symbols. S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, or Z indicate Europe. 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 indicate North America, including USA, Mexico, and Canada. 6 or 7 indicate Australia or New Zealand. Note that nearby nations such as Indonesia or the Philippines are considered part of Asia for this purpose. 8 or 9 indicate South America.

Some companies use the third digit as well to indicate manufacturer or company division. The first two digits should be enough to identify the country and company, however.

A 10th character which is an A, B, C, D, E, F, G, or H indicate the years 1980 – 1987 in alphabetical order, or the years 2010 – 2017. J, K, L, M, and N are reserved for model years 1988 – 1992, or 2018 – 2022. P means the model year is 1993 or 2023. R, S, and T mean 1994 – 1996 or 2024 – 2026. V, W, X, and Y mean 1997 – 2000 or 2027 – 2030. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 indicate the years 2001 – 2009 or 2031 – 2039. A real VIN never contains the letters I, O, or Q. The year code has additional restrictions, never using the number 0 or the letters U or Z. If you’re not sure whether your car is new or old, check the vehicle’s 7th character. If this is a number, your vehicle’s model year is earlier than 2010. If the 7th character is a letter, the model year is 2010 or later (until 2039).

Look on the dash at the base of the windshield on the driver’s side for a small plaque. [6] X Expert Source Audra FordinCertified Automotive Technician Expert Interview. 13 January 2022. Look for a sticker on the driver’s door. A VIN may also be found in the front of the engine block, easily visible once you open the hood. [7] X Expert Source Audra FordinCertified Automotive Technician Expert Interview. 13 January 2022. On most newer vehicles, some body parts such as fenders and hoods also have the VIN on them for identification and matching parts to the vehicle. [8] X Expert Source Audra FordinCertified Automotive Technician Expert Interview. 13 January 2022. Open the driver-side door, and look at the where the side view mirror would be located if the door were shut. Older cars may have VINs found elsewhere, such as on the steering column, radiator support bracket, or the left-side inner wheel arch. [9] X Expert Source Audra FordinCertified Automotive Technician Expert Interview. 13 January 2022.

You can try to find a VIN lookup on your car manufacturer’s web site, but it’s not guaranteed to have one. If your vehicle was manufactured before 1980, it might have a nonstandard VIN. If free lookup websites don’t work, try a paid service such as CARFAX, AutoCheck, or VinAudit. These should give you a little information for free, but a full VIN decoding will cost money.

First, try the free service at The National Insurance Crime Bureau website. If you cannot get information for free online, you may need to pay for a Vehicle History Report. This should be included in the VIN report services described earlier, such as VinAudit’s.

These codes are fully standardized in North America. Elsewhere in the world, most major manufacturers follow the same standards, but they may use the 9th and 10th characters for different purposes. In North America, the 9th must be used as “checking code” to confirm the VIN is real, and the 10th must be used to indicate the year the car was made.

If you don’t know the car manufacturer, you can look it up based on the second character. Look up the most common manufacturer’s code online. Try to find a VIN lookup service or the VIN decoding sheets on your car manufacturer’s website. Failing that, use a search engine to look for “VIN decoding sheet” + “(name of company)”. This may be difficult or impossible for some manufacturers. Contact the company’s support service if they have one and ask about VIN decoding specific to their cars. Ask an auto service shop if you can see their decoding charts. The workers there use the charts to direct the repairs and adjustments they make. [10] X Research source

Technically, the 9th character is also considered part of the “VDS” section, but is used to confirm the VIN is real, not to describe a component.

Some manufacturers never repeat serial numbers, while others start again at 000001 each year. The 10th through 17th digits are referred to as the Vehicle Identification Section.

Follow the instructions below if you want to calculate it yourself instead. Shady used car salesmen sometimes replace VIN stickers to hide a history of damage. Using an online calculator can quickly confirm whether it’s a lazy fake, but a smart criminal will use a real sticker from a similar model. This is where you can compare the VIN in the door to the VIN on the dash or on other body components to see if major components have been replaced with used parts or mismatched parts, indicating wrecks or rebuilds.

Note: The check character will always be a number or the letter X. If it is a different letter, either the VIN was fake, the car was made before 1980 and uses a different standard, or the car was made outside North America and, unusually, the makers decided not to follow the check digit standard. Write down the 9th character now to check at the end of the calculation, or find it again afterward.

A and J become 1 B, K, and S become 2 C, L, and T become 3 D, M, and U become 4 E, N, and V become 5 F and W become 6 G, P, and X become 7 H and Y become 8 R and Z become 9 If there is an I, O, or a Q in your VIN, it is fake. Real VINs never use these letters, due to how easy it is to mistake them for a number. You can skip the rest of this method, as you already know the VIN isn’t real.

A (fake) VIN with letters turned into numbers as described above: 4 2 3 2 2 6 3 4 2 2 6 3 2 0 0 0 1 The series of numbers to multiply: 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 10 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Multiply 4 x 8 (the first number in each line) to get 32. Multiple 2 x 7 (the second number) to get 14. Continue until you get the following results: 32;14;18;10;8;18;6;40;0;18;48;21;12;0;0;0;2.

Continuing the example above, we get 32+14+18+10+8+18+6+40+0+18+48+21+12+0+0+0+2 = 247.

‘Note": If the remainder is “10”, write down an “X” instead. Using the example above, 247 / 11 = 22 remainder 5. Write down 5. If you’re using a calculator that gives you the answers in decimals, and you’re not sure how to find the remainder, use an online remainder caculator instead.

Note that, if the remainder is 10, the matching 9th digit of a real VIN will be “X”, since the manufacturer can’t use a two digit number (10) as a checking number. In our example above, the fifth digit of the original VIN is 2 but our remainder is 5. These numbers are not the same, so the VIN must be fake.