Where to find it
On the driver's door-jamb sticker, on the dashboard at the base of the windshield (visible from outside), on your registration and insurance card. VINs never contain the letters I, O or Q, so if you read one, it's a 1, 0 or 9.
What it encodes
- Positions 1–3: the manufacturer and country.
- Positions 4–8: vehicle attributes the manufacturer encodes — model, body, engine, restraint system.
- Position 9: a check digit that catches typos (North American vehicles).
- Position 10: model year. Position 11: assembly plant. Positions 12–17: serial number.
What NHTSA's decoder returns
The government's vPIC service decodes what the manufacturer submitted: year, make, model, trim or series, body class, engine size and cylinders, drivetrain, fuel, plant, and some safety equipment. Manufacturers do not always submit complete data, so some fields can be blank — that is a data gap, not a problem with the car.
What it does not tell you
Mileage, accidents, title status, maintenance, current condition, or whether a recall remedy was performed. Those come from a history report (reported events), a recall lookup, and an inspection (actual condition).
Source: NHTSA vPIC VIN decoder.