VIN decoder
Check what a car really is before you bid: year, model, engine and where it was built, plus Ghana import checks.
What a VIN tells you
Every car built since 1981 has a 17-character vehicle identification number (VIN). It never uses the letters I, O or Q, so they can't be confused with 1 and 0.
| Characters | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 1–3 | The manufacturer and country (for example 1, 4 or 5 = USA, 2 = Canada, J = Japan) |
| 4–8 | The model, body, engine and safety equipment |
| 9 | A check digit that catches typos (used on North American cars) |
| 10 | The model year (for example K = 2019, L = 2020, M = 2021) |
| 11 | The factory that built it |
| 12–17 | The car's own serial number |
Where to find it
On the auction listing, at the bottom of the windscreen on the driver's side, on the driver's door pillar, and on the title. They should all match.
What the decoder can't tell you
A VIN decoder shows what the car was built as, not what has happened to it since. For accidents, floods, odometer problems and past owners, you need a history report (such as Carfax or AutoCheck) and a careful look at the auction photos. See how to read an auction listing.
Decoding uses the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's public vPIC database. Cars built for markets outside North America may decode only partly.