Where to find the VIN on your car and your papers, and how to read it

On a modern registration document, the VIN is in box E. On the car it's in several places, and the useful part is checking that they all agree.

Anna

Vehicle history research

The VIN is on the car and on its papers. Read both.

Most people go looking for a VIN because an insurer or a parts shop asked for it.

Finding it takes a minute. If you're about to buy the car, though, where you found it matters as much as what it says.

Found it? See what's on record

Type the 17 characters, or photograph the VIN with your phone and we'll read it for you.

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Austria A Belgium B Bulgaria BG Cyprus CY Czechia CZ Germany D Denmark DK Estonia EST Spain E Finland FIN France F United Kingdom GB Greece GR Hungary H Ireland IRL Italy I Lithuania LT Luxembourg L Latvia LV Malta M Netherlands NL Poland PL Portugal P Romania RO Sweden S Slovenia SLO Slovakia SK

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On your registration document

Look for the letter E.

EU rules give each field on a vehicle registration document a fixed code, and code E is the vehicle identification number. The document's name and design change from country to country, but the code stays the same.

The VIN goes by different names, which is why searching for it can send you in circles. Here's what it's called on the documents you're most likely to see.

In the Netherlands, the VIN is on the back of the registration card.

In Romania, don't confuse it with the CIV series. The vehicle identity card (CIV) is a separate document with its own number.

Older documents can have a different layout, and some have no box E at all, so read the label as well as the letter.

On the car

EU rules call for the VIN to be stamped into the chassis or body, on the car's right hand side as you face forward, where it can be seen and reached. Carmakers repeat it elsewhere, so you have several places to check.

1. The base of the windscreen. A small plate behind the glass, in a lower corner and often on the driver's side. You can read it from outside, so it's the quickest check. Many cars have one, though it's a carmaker's habit and no EU rule requires it.
2. The door pillar. Open the driver's door and look on the pillar or the door frame for a plate or sticker. Some carmakers put this plate in the engine bay instead.
3. Stamped into the body. This is the number the rules ask for, and the hardest one to change. It's usually in the engine bay, or under a flap in the floor by a front seat. The owner's manual shows you where.
4. The service book. Service books and insurance papers usually repeat the VIN. They're only paper, so treat them as a cross check.

Do all the VINs match?

Most guides stop at where to look. If you're buying, the next step matters more: compare the VIN on the papers, on the windscreen plate and in the body, character by character, before any money changes hands.

The reason is simple. A VIN check describes the number you typed in. It can't tell you whether that number belongs to the car in front of you. A stolen car can be given the identity of a clean one, and then a clean report on that VIN proves nothing.

A history report describes the number you typed. Only you can check that the number belongs to the car.

Some differences have an innocent explanation, such as a typing error on a document. Others don't, and you can't tell which from the seller's word alone.

A car whose number doesn't match its papers can be refused registration, and once you've paid, that's your problem.

So don't pay until the registration authority has checked it. If you think the car may be stolen, tell the police.

Look at the plates and the stamped number as well. A plate that's loose, scratched or glued back on deserves a question, and so do characters that look uneven or sit in fresh paint.

A missing door sticker doesn't prove anything by itself. It can mean the door or pillar was repaired or replaced, which is worth asking about and worth comparing with the car's damage records.

How to read the 17 characters

Every VIN splits into the same three groups.

• The first 3: the maker. These identify who built the car.
• The next 6: the description. The maker uses these to describe the vehicle. Places it doesn't need can hold a filler, which is why European Volkswagen VINs start WVWZZZ.
• The last 8: this car. These identify the individual vehicle, and the last 4 are digits.

The letters I, O and Q are never used, because they're too easily mistaken for 1 and 0. If you think you're reading an O, it's a 0.

Try it with your own VIN. What you type here stays on this page.

Two things that catch people out

The 10th character isn't always the year. You'll often read that it is. That comes from North American rules, and the EU rules don't define it. Volkswagen does use it for the model year, while many European BMWs simply have a 0 there. For a car's age, go by the first registration date on its papers, and remember a car can be built months before it's registered.

The 9th character isn't always a check digit. In North America it's calculated from the other characters, so a tool can catch a typing error. In the EU that only began to be required in July 2022, starting with new vehicle types. When we ran the North American formula over a week of European VINs from our own records, nearly half failed it, and they were real cars with real records. A checker that calls a VIN invalid for that reason is wrong.

What a VIN can tell you, and what it can't

Decoded, a VIN tells you what the car is: the maker, the model and often the engine. You can try that free with our VIN decoder.

It doesn't tell you what has happened since. Mileage readings, damage records and time spent in other countries sit in separate records, and a history report brings them together.

When the seller won't give you the VIN

A VIN isn't a secret. On many cars you can read it through the windscreen.

Ask the seller for a photo of box E on the registration document. They can cover their name and address, because you only need that one line.

A seller who still won't share it deserves a question before you travel to see the car.

If the listing only shows a number plate, you may be able to start from that. In some countries, our search box takes a plate as well as a VIN.

Still comparing cars? You can buy reports now and use them once you have the VINs.

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