VIN checker
Type a VIN, or just its first three characters. The checker reads the manufacturer code against NHTSA's catalog, lists the two years the model-year character can stand for, and recomputes the check digit. Everything runs in your browser; nothing you type is sent anywhere.
Example shown: 1HGCV1F31LA000000, a VIN made up for this page (serial 000000) with a valid check digit.
Positions 1–3: who holds the code
1HG American Honda Motor Co., Inc.
Honda passenger cars, registered in the United States. Decoding rules cover model years 1981 onward. Full profile of 1HG
Position 10: model year
L 1990 or 2020
Position 7 is a letter (F), which for a passenger car, multipurpose vehicle or truck of 10,000 lb or less points to 2020. 1HG's rules cover 1990 and 2020.
Position 9: check digit
1 matches the computed value 1
The weighted sum is 221; divided by 11 it leaves 1.
Show the arithmetic
| Pos. | Char. | Value | Weight | Product |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 8 |
| 2 | H | 8 | 7 | 56 |
| 3 | G | 7 | 6 | 42 |
| 4 | C | 3 | 5 | 15 |
| 5 | V | 5 | 4 | 20 |
| 6 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 7 | F | 6 | 2 | 12 |
| 8 | 3 | 3 | 10 | 30 |
| 9 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 | L | 3 | 9 | 27 |
| 11 | A | 1 | 8 | 8 |
| 12 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 |
| 13 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| 14 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| 15 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| 16 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 17 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
How to use it
Enter the VIN from the vehicle, its title or its registration. Three characters are enough to look up the code holder; with all 17 the checker also reads positions 9 and 10. The address bar keeps your input (?vin=), so a result can be shared. Codes with a 9 in position 3 belong to small manufacturers, and the checker then reads positions 12 to 14 as well.
What the results mean
Holder is the company NHTSA lists for the code, with the vehicle type and country it recorded. Model year comes from the character in position 10: each character is reused every 30 years, so it always stands for two years, and the code's own rule years narrow it further. Check digit is the result of the standard calculation in 49 CFR Part 565: each character gets a value, each position a weight, and the remainder of the sum divided by 11 must equal position 9 (10 is written X).
A matching check digit says the 17 characters are internally consistent. It does not show who owns a vehicle, its history or whether it was stolen, and this site keeps no record of individual vehicles. The data covers manufacturers that report to NHTSA, which mainly means vehicles sold in the United States.
Model-year characters
Position 10 never uses I, O, Q, U, Z or 0.