Classic car VIN decoder
The 17-character VIN arrived with the 1981 model year. A classic from 1981 on — a Fox-body, a C4 Corvette, an E30 — decodes here like any other car. Anything earlier carries a manufacturer's own serial number, five to thirteen characters long, that no federal database decodes. Paste what you have; the page explains what it is either way.
Any length. A 17-character number decodes with NHTSA; a shorter one is a pre-1981 serial and the page explains what it can tell you instead.
Where the number is
1969 and later
A plate at the base of the windshield on the driver's side, readable from outside — federal rule from the 1969 model year. Door-jamb and firewall tags repeat it.
Before 1969
Location is the maker's choice: the driver's door post, the firewall, the frame rail or the cowl. The trim or body tag beside it is a different number that records paint and interior codes.
Match the paper
On a classic, the number on the car and the number on the title must agree character for character. A serial re-stamped, moved or missing is the first thing an appraiser looks for.
What a VIN decode cannot tell you
Source: free federal toolsEverything the decoder shows is what the manufacturer built and filed with the federal government. What happened afterwards — title brands, odometer readings at each transfer, insurance total-loss and salvage records — lives in state DMV records, which reach the public through the federal NMVTIS system. WhichTrim does not sell those reports and takes no commission from anyone who does.
NHTSA's recall lookup covers vehicles from the 17-character era. For a pre-1981 car, recall campaigns exist on paper and in NHTSA's older databases, but there is no VIN lookup.
Recalls for this exact VIN
Decode it above and the WhichTrim recall report lists every recall filed against its build, sets aside the ones that name a different engine or drive, and narrows the rest to its build month off the door-jamb label.
Decode a VINBefore you buy it
The Car Check reads the model year’s whole federal record for you: the verdict, what breaks and at what mileage, whether the maker pays, and the year to buy instead.
The Car Check, $9.99After you own it
Add the car to a free Garage and WhichTrim emails you the day a new recall, bulletin or coverage extension is filed against it.
Your GarageA decode is one moment. A recall can land next month.
Campaigns are filed every week against model years already on the road. Recall Watch re-checks your car against the federal record every night and emails you the morning something changes — with the severity, any park-outside or do-not-drive flag, and both links that can settle it for your VIN. On the 1st of each month it sends a statement for the month just ended.
Lot
50 vehicles, watched nightly.
Dealer
500 vehicles, watched nightly.
Fleet
5,000 vehicles, watched nightly.
The free tier is the whole product, not a trial — no card, no clock, and every feature the paid plans have — alerts, the dated log, the monthly statement, the per-vehicle disclosure document and webhook delivery. Paid plans exist only because some people have more than ten vehicles.
How a VIN is put together
Source: ISO 3779 / NHTSA| Position | Section | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| 1–3 | World manufacturer identifier | Who built it and where. 1, 4 and 5 are the United States, 2 Canada, 3 Mexico, J Japan, K South Korea, W Germany, S the United Kingdom. |
| 4–8 | Vehicle descriptor | Model, body style, restraint system, engine — the section that makes a VIN say which car this is rather than which unit. |
| 9 | Check digit | A checksum of the other sixteen characters. A VIN that fails it has been mistyped or invented. |
| 10 | Model year | A letter or digit, not the year itself: N is 2022, P 2023, R 2024, S 2025, T 2026. I, O, Q, U and Z are never used. |
| 11 | Assembly plant | The manufacturer's code for the factory that built this vehicle. |
| 12–17 | Serial number | The unit's own sequence number on that line. |
Model-year codes, 1980–2030
Source: position 10The code repeats every thirty years. Position 7 breaks the tie: a letter there means 2010 or later, a digit 2009 or earlier.
| Year | Code |
|---|---|
| 1980 | A |
| 1981 | B |
| 1982 | C |
| 1983 | D |
| 1984 | E |
| 1985 | F |
| 1986 | G |
| 1987 | H |
| 1988 | J |
| 1989 | K |
| 1990 | L |
| 1991 | M |
| 1992 | N |
| 1993 | P |
| 1994 | R |
| 1995 | S |
| 1996 | T |
| Year | Code |
|---|---|
| 1997 | V |
| 1998 | W |
| 1999 | X |
| 2000 | Y |
| 2001 | 1 |
| 2002 | 2 |
| 2003 | 3 |
| 2004 | 4 |
| 2005 | 5 |
| 2006 | 6 |
| 2007 | 7 |
| 2008 | 8 |
| 2009 | 9 |
| 2010 | A |
| 2011 | B |
| 2012 | C |
| 2013 | D |
| Year | Code |
|---|---|
| 2014 | E |
| 2015 | F |
| 2016 | G |
| 2017 | H |
| 2018 | J |
| 2019 | K |
| 2020 | L |
| 2021 | M |
| 2022 | N |
| 2023 | P |
| 2024 | R |
| 2025 | S |
| 2026 | T |
| 2027 | V |
| 2028 | W |
| 2029 | X |
| 2030 | Y |
Decoding something else?
Common questions
Source: NHTSA vPIC, 49 CFR Part 565Can a pre-1981 VIN be decoded?
Not by any federal database. Before the 1981 model year each maker used its own serial format, five to thirteen characters, and the meaning of each position is the maker's. What those numbers usually encode is the assembly plant, the model or series, the engine and the sequential build number — but which character means what depends on the maker and the year, and the authoritative key is the maker's own documentation.
Where is the build record for a classic?
With the maker's heritage or classic division, where one exists — several sell a build sheet or certificate reconstructed from production records against the serial number — and with the marque clubs and registries that have transcribed factory ledgers. WhichTrim links to none of them and takes no commission; search the maker's name with “heritage” or “classic center”.
My classic is from 1981 or later. Does it decode?
Fully. The 17-character standard began with the 1981 model year, so a 1985 Corvette, a 1989 Mustang or a 1991 BMW decodes here from NHTSA's database like any current car — make, model, engine, plant.
What is the model-year letter?
Position 10. A letter or digit that repeats on a thirty-year cycle: B is 1981 and also 2011, Y is 2000 and 2030. Position 7 breaks the tie — a letter there means 2010 or later, a digit means 2009 or earlier. The table on this page lists every year.
Is my VIN stored?
No. The decode runs in your browser against NHTSA's public database. WhichTrim never receives it.