How to read a VIN
A vehicle identification number, or VIN, has 17 characters. Each position has a job, and the layout has been the same since the 1981 model year. This page goes through the positions in order, using KM8K2CAB4PU001140, a 2023 Hyundai Kona, as the example.
The 17 positions
A VIN uses the digits 0 to 9 and every capital letter except I, O and Q, which look too much like 1 and 0.
| Position | Example | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 3 | KM8 | Who built the vehicle: the manufacturer code. |
| 4 to 8 | K2CAB | What the vehicle is. The manufacturer chooses the meaning: usually the model, the body, the restraints and the engine. |
| 9 | 4 | The check digit, worked out from the other 16 characters. |
| 10 | P | The model year. P is 2023. |
| 11 | U | The plant the vehicle was built in. |
| 12 to 17 | 001140 | The serial number of this vehicle. |
Positions 1 to 3: the manufacturer
The first character is a region, the first two are a country, and all three name one manufacturer and often one kind of vehicle. KM8 is Hyundai, for multipurpose vehicles built in South Korea. A small manufacturer shares its first three characters with others: its third character is 9, and positions 12 to 14 finish its code.
Positions 4 to 8: the vehicle
These five characters describe the vehicle, and each manufacturer decides how. One puts the model in positions 4 and 5 and the engine in position 8; another does it differently, and the meaning can change from one model year to the next. That is why decoding them needs the manufacturer's own tables, which it files with NHTSA.
For many vehicles sold in North America position 8 is the engine. A model-year page on this site lists the eighth character for each engine where the data settles it.
Position 9: the check digit
The ninth character is worked out from the other sixteen, so it catches most typing mistakes. It is required on vehicles built for the United States and Canada. Many vehicles built for other markets do not use it, so a VIN that fails the check is not always wrong.
Position 10: the model year
One character stands for the model year, in a cycle of 30 years: P was 1993 and is 2023. On cars, multipurpose vehicles and light trucks, position 7 says which: a digit there means 1980 to 2009 and a letter means 2010 to 2039. In the example position 7 is A, so P is 2023.
Position 11: the plant
One character for the factory. Each manufacturer has its own list, so U at one manufacturer is not U at another.
Positions 12 to 17: the serial number
The last six characters are what makes one VIN different from the next. A small manufacturer has only positions 15 to 17 for the serial number, because 12 to 14 belong to its manufacturer code.
Decode one
Type a VIN into the box on the first page to see every field this site has for it.