When buying a car, many car enthusiasts have natural questions - How not to buy broken car? How to avoid becoming the owner of a stolen car? How can you know that everything is fine and you can take it without fear? On the one hand, it is right to use the services of a professional who would look at the car and tell you about its condition.

On the other hand, there is a way learn almost everything about a car just by typing numbers from the body and engine. It is these numbers that we will talk about in our article, as well as how useful it is to know them before purchasing.

VIN code is the vehicle identification number, which consists of seventeen letters and numbers. This code is unique and assigned to each vehicle, and the code itself contains a huge amount of information. It is this code that can simultaneously tell not only about the make, model, year of manufacture, but also about the characteristics of the car.

The code itself consists of three components:

1. WMI - World Vehicle Manufacturer Index. Consists of three characters and speaks exclusively about the company that produced the car;
2. VDS - Narrative. Consists of only six characters, but at the same time provides information about the configuration, model, body type, engine and other characteristics of the car;
3. VIS - Distinctive part, already responsible for the year of manufacture, information about the manufacturing plant. This part consists of eight values ​​and is the last part in the VIN code of the car.

If the code was deliberately interrupted in order to hide information about the theft or accident, then it simply will not be read, or it will show completely different information. It is almost impossible to write valid code by encrypting huge amounts of data.

What is the VIN code for?

First of all he necessary for vehicle registration, as well as collecting information on each specific machine. It is for this reason that it is necessary to check with it: whether the car was stolen or involved in an accident, how many years it has been driving on the roads and whether everything is fine with the code itself.

Since access to the database is not free, to find out information for each car you can contact the appropriate organization. However, you can do it easier and just visit one of the online resources that offers a complete statement according to the VIN code you specified.

Where else can I look up the VIN code?

• IN . First of all, pay attention to the code written there - if it and the car code do not match, then there is definitely something wrong with the car;
• . There you will also need to indicate the VIN code as vehicle identifier. You can use it to check whether the driver is committing fraudulent actions when receiving payments;
• In the coupon issued after. The VIN will also serve there vehicle identifier along with other numbers.

The vehicle identification number (VIN) or, as motorists very often call it, the VIN code runs like a red thread when performing most actions with your car, such as: issuing OSAGO and CASCO insurance policies, making purchases and sales, ordering spare parts and components, and etc.

VIN code is a unique 17-digit code that is assigned to each car. With its help, you can not only obtain information about the car manufacturer, but also track its history, participation in accidents and other interesting details.

VIN code of the car and its structure

Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) is the unique identification number of the vehicle that contains 17 numbers, encoding all information about the vehicle. You can find it on a special plate attached to the body.

Thanks to complete standardization The code can be easily deciphered anywhere in the world.

For the first time the VIN code was applied in 1977, after it was adopted in the USA and Canada general standards. Previously, each concern or plant involved in the production of vehicles used its own own notation, which could differ greatly from each other and thereby significantly complicate car identification process.

The use of a VIN code has made it possible to strengthen the protection of cars from hijacking thanks to its application to hard-to-reach areas of the body or chassis.

The VIN code is conventionally divided into three parts, called WMI (World Manufacturers Identification) - the worldwide manufacturer index, VDS (Vehicle Description Section) - the descriptive part and VIS (Vehicle Identification Section) - the distinctive part.

WMI part contains three characters in which is encrypted information about the car manufacturer. The first number indicates the geographic area, the second the country, and the third the manufacturer.

It's worth noting that sometimes the last number in WMI can indicate the transport type.

VDS consists of six numbers and contains technical data of the car. VDS, as a rule, is determined by the manufacturer itself and can be completely varied.

IN VIS contains eight digits. Each plant itself determines what should appear in this section. Detailed decoding of VIS is usually performed when checking the car.

By checking the vehicle identification number, you can obtain information about where your vehicle was manufactured and assembled, find out its model and year of manufacture, color, basic equipment and other information.

In addition, you can check by the VIN code whether the car left the country it was in, Have you been in an accident?

If the test result does not coincide with reality, then most likely you have stolen car.

When does it become necessary to check the VIN?

There are a number of situations when knowing a car’s VIN code will not be superfluous. This doesn't mean you need to memorize it. To do this, you just need to know where it is located and How can you check it if necessary?.

First of all, the VIN code is required when registering a car with the traffic police.

The service inspector will check the compliance of the number indicated in the vehicle registration data, the code that is printed either inside the car or under the hood, as well as the contents of the plate. All you have to do is show the code to an inspector, who will look at it and determine if someone has tried to fix it.

The bottom line is that it is now quite easy to forge paper or electronic documents. But it is very difficult to quietly correct 17 numbers stamped on a metal plate.

Quite often, dishonest traffic police officers try to make money by sending cars for examination. In this case, you can refuse it and go to another MREO traffic police department.

Also, when purchasing a car, before signing the deed of sale It is necessary to check the VIN number indicated in the vehicle’s passport with the code stamped on the plate and in the body. It wouldn't hurt to check the code yourself. Fortunately, there are plenty of resources for this on the Internet.

When buying cars at car dealerships, it is quite common that when the PTS does not match the wine indicated on the vehicle. Such situations arise due to staff inattention and clients, when the seller has many passports of cars of the same model in his hands.

Buying a car on secondary market , you would undoubtedly like to assess its condition, know the mileage and its previous history. For example, has the car been in an accident, been arrested, etc. Not to mention whether it is stolen or is wanted.

By checking the VIN code before buying a car, you will be able to better compare such an important fact as the price-quality ratio of the vehicle.

You may also need to know your VIN number. when ordering spare parts and components for a car.

How to check?

In the age of development information technologies Checking the VIN code in the database is not difficult. It's quite simple for this enter the corresponding query in the search engine.

There are many sites on the Internet that check VIN codes. Some of them are free, others provide their services for a certain price. The difference is in the amount of information you will be given.

It wouldn’t hurt to check the car using the same VIN code and for any prohibitions or restrictions on registration.

In addition, you can check the car’s VIN code and the presence of debts on the car of its seller. True, for this you will first need to ask his first and last name.

You can also check your debt on specialized websites and even V special application in social networks. Some applications for iPhone and Android have also been created for the same purpose.

This, of course, will not protect you 100% from the scammer, but it can give you some confidence.

You can also send the car for examination to the traffic police. But this pleasure definitely comes at a cost ( approximate cost– 2500 rubles), but you won’t have to doubt the quality of the data.

And finally, a question that worries many ordinary people: Is it worth trying to check the car yourself using its VIN code? After all, this is what the authorized bodies do.

In some cases this is simply necessary, since in light of the adoption in October 2013 new Administrative Regulations all problems when concluding a deed of sale and purchase of a car with a criminal record lie with on the shoulders of the buyer.

On the one hand, he significantly simplified the vehicle registration procedure, but on the other hand - allowed scammers to sell stolen cars, which before they simply could not deregister.


Now, having re-registered a car with a bad past, the buyer receives as a bonus full set corresponding headache.

VIN code is personal vehicle identification code, consisting of 17 digits. With its help you can learn a lot technical features car, country of manufacturer, mileage, whether the car participated in Road accident and a lot of others interesting facts from his biography.

Wine checking services are provided by a variety of websites – paid and free. When purchasing a car on the secondary market, it is very important to check it by VIN code and make sure that its past legally clear.

In addition, even when purchasing a vehicle in a showroom or on a car lot, do not forget to check the VIN code matches specified in the PTS, the code on the car body.

Video report on the examination of a car with a broken VIN code

Vehicle identification number(English: Vehicle identification number) VIN— a unique vehicle code consisting of 17 characters. The code provides information about the manufacturer and characteristics of the vehicle, and the year of manufacture. The structure of the code is based on the ISO 3779-1983 and ISO 3780 standards. Identification numbers are applied (embossed) on integral components of the body or chassis and on specially made number plates (nameplates):

• on the frame of the front door (usually the driver’s, but sometimes also the passenger’s);
• on the panel near the windshield;
• directly on the engine (knocked out on the front of the engine);
• on a heat-insulating partition;
• on the inner arch of the left wheel;
• on the steering wheel/steering column;
• on the bracket supporting the radiator;
• in the vehicle passport, vehicle registration certificate,
  warranty card/coupon technical inspection or on your car insurance policy.

An identification number ( VIN) are indicated in Arabic numerals and Latin letters symbols, assigned vehicle.

The first part of the VIN, which allows you to identify the vehicle manufacturer, consists of three letters or letters and numbers indicating the geographical area, the country code and the vehicle manufacturer code, assigned in the prescribed manner.

The second part of the VIN is the descriptive part identification number and consists of six signs indicating the vehicle according to the design documentation.

The third part of the VIN is the index part and consists of eight numbers or letters, of which the last four characters must be numbers. The first character may indicate the code of the year of manufacture of the vehicle or model year in accordance with Comparison table numbers and letters used in identification numbers as a code for the year of manufacture of the vehicle or vehicle chassis (Appendix No. 2 to these Regulations), on subsequent signs - the serial number of the vehicle.

To designate a manufacturer that produces less than 500 vehicles per year, the number 9 is used as the third character of the first part of the VIN. For such a manufacturer, a combination of characters identifying a specific manufacturer is placed in the third, fourth and fifth positions of the third part of the VIN.

VIN cannot contain the Latin letters I, O and Q (due to the similarity with the numbers 1 and 0).

Get reliable information car ownership and operation history by VIN, you can visit the portal

Now, in general, perhaps every more or less experienced owner of a four-wheeled vehicle knows what a car’s VIN code is. It should be noted that it appeared relatively recently, and not at all by chance, but precisely when there was a need for its presence.

What is a car's VIN code and why is it needed?

The abbreviation itself "VIN" stands for "Vehicle Identification Number", which is translated from English into Russian as “Vehicle Identification Number”. When the car was just appearing and was, in fact, a piece product, it never occurred to anyone to identify them in any way. Somewhat later, when there were more cars, several well-known brands appeared; all problems that arose with them were solved in the appropriate workshops, so there was no need for identification either.

It arose when rapid motorization began, and the number of cars produced began to number first in hundreds of thousands, and then in millions, and it was constantly growing. Accordingly, the number of models increased, and many spare parts were suitable only for a certain one of them, and even often produced in a strictly defined period of time. At this stage of development of the automotive industry, the need arose for their clear and unambiguous identification.

What a plate with a VIN code on a car might look like

The first VIN codes appeared in the United States of America in the mid-fifties of the last century, both on the cars themselves and on the spare parts that were intended for them. Initially, each of the known automobile manufacturers used its own system of identification numbers, which, naturally, was inconvenient for motorists and repairmen and caused some confusion. It disappeared after the National Transportation Safety Association of the United States developed and made mandatory a system in the early eighties of the last century, according to which all cars must be marked with special 17-digit identification numbers. They are the VIN codes that are still in effect today.

According to current practice, the VIN code is applied by the final manufacturer of the car, that is, the enterprise that ships fully finished equipment to dealers, that is, to the retail network. In fact, it represents information encrypted in accordance with the recommendations and requirements of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) about where, by whom, when and in what configuration the car was produced, as well as some other data. The VIN code consists of three sections filled with capital Latin letters and Arabic numerals.

• The first section of a car's VIN is three characters that represent the so-called WMI (World Manufacturer Identifier) ​​- Worldwide Manufacturer Identifier. It denotes the country of origin of the vehicle, and in it the first character is the geographical area code, the second is the country code, and the third is the manufacturer code.
• In the second section, which is called VDS (Vehicle Description Section), contains six characters. It is descriptive and encodes data such as the type and purpose of the vehicle, as well as the type of engine. It should be noted that each manufacturer chooses the coding method in this section of the VIN code independently.
• As for the third section, it is called VIS (Vehicle Indicator Section), that is, indicator, and consists of eight symbols. It is intended to be able to distinguish one car from another even when both the model and make of the vehicle are completely the same.

Interestingly, the VIN code does not use letters such as O, Q, I to avoid confusion with similar numbers.

Where is the VIN code of the car?

IN modern cars The VIN is located in several places on the vehicle, but the easiest place to find it is in technical passport or on the registration certificate. By referring to this documentation, finding it out is absolutely no problem. In addition to it, the VIN code is also indicated in a number of other parts of the car, namely: on special license plates, the chassis, as well as on integral components of the body.

The main location of the plate with the VIN code of the car.

Almost all leading car manufacturers place the VIN code on the instrument panel, namely on its upper left part. Therefore, you can simply see it through the windshield of the car. In addition, almost all modern passenger cars it is present on the left front pillar of the body. Those who own American-made cars or are planning to purchase them should keep in mind that the location of the VIN code on their bodies may well be slightly different. In the USA, manufacturers often apply it directly to the dashboard, on the driver’s side, in the place where they connect Windshield and hood. In addition, the VIN code is often duplicated on a special sticker located directly in the driver’s door opening.

For cars of almost all makes and models, the VIN code should be looked for on the cylinder head and the block itself, body pillars, and the partition between the engine compartment and the passenger compartment. If the car has a frame structure (such as, for example, some models of modern SUVs), then it is often also applied to the side members. Another place where you can find a car VIN plate is engine compartment. The sign with it is usually attached there in a visible place using screws or rivets.

What can you find out from the VIN code?

Since the VIN code is a unique identifier of a car, you can use it to find out not only the information that is encrypted directly in it, but also much more, in fact, the entire history of the vehicle’s operation. When registering a car, one of the key indicators of the car is its VIN code. On many public and private websites, this identification number can be used to determine exactly how many owners the car had, whether it was involved in accidents and fines, whether it was stolen or under arrest, etc. In fact, only the VIN code is still a code that does not change at all throughout the entire “life” of the vehicle.

Video on the topic

Since 1981, passenger cars and trucks receive a VIN code (vehicle identification number) - a non-random set of letters and numbers that encrypt information about the vehicle name, equipment and year of manufacture.

More precisely, a chain of seventeen characters in encrypted form describes the car, the manufacturer, the engine power under the hood, and even at which factory the car was assembled. Thanks to the VIN, when buying a car on the secondary market, you can accurately determine whether the declared contents of the car correspond to reality, what kind of body the car has (restyling or non-restyling), and engine size. On the website of the Russian State Traffic Safety Inspectorate there has long been a section where, using the VIN, you can see whether the car has been stolen, whether it has been in an accident (the database has been maintained since 2015), whether it is pledged to the bank, how many owners have owned it, and whether the car has been seized. .

How did the car's VIN appear?

Since 1956, all American automakers have used a VIN number to identify each vehicle that leaves the factory. This is where the obligations ended and the bacchanalia began, since there were no standards for compiling the VIN code of cars. Everyone collected the model ID according to their own rules.

To eliminate confusion, starting in 1969, automakers began assigning each passenger vehicle a permanent number and placing the markings so that they were easily visible on a pillar near the driver's side windshield. The number used was not allowed to be assigned to any other vehicle for ten years.

The disadvantages of the new system were that:

• workers of auto concerns died under piles of catalogs and papers with information about already assigned numbers;
• after 10 years there was a chance of two cars with the same identification numbers appearing;
• the encrypted information was not complete.

Lawmakers have again returned to the issue of standardizing the encryption of vehicle information in the VIN code.

The VIN code became standardized throughout the industry for the 1981 model year. Every passenger car, truck, bus, trailer and motorcycle are assigned a VIN. The system prohibits the automaker from reusing the VIN for 30 years.

An example of how to decipher the VIN code of a car

Let’s look at what a car’s VIN code is and how to decipher it in practice. Let's find out what each number and letter means individually. For example, take the identification number 1FMJU2AT3FEF00187.

Let's break the number into parts. The first three characters form what is called the manufacturer identifier. The first number indicates where the car is assembled. In our case, this is “1”, which means the car was produced in the United States. The "F" indicates that it is a Ford, and the "M" indicates that it is an SUV.

The fourth character in the code is the letter “J”, which, depending on the vehicle’s configuration, indicates its security system, braking technology and other options. Our SUV has a set of eight airbags and weighs between 2.7 - 4.5 tons.

By the fifth character, the letter “U,” we recognize the model of the SUV - Expedition. The number “2” in sixth place indicates that this is a limited edition model. The letter "A", which occupies the seventh place in the VIN code, indicates that the car is a truck.

The eighth character of the identification number describes the transmission and engine of the vehicle. For our Expedition, it's a "T," which is Ford parlance for the 3.5-liter V-6 EcoBoost engine.

In the ninth position there is a symbol called the check digit. It is curious that this figure does not make any sense; it is needed for control check mathematical accuracy of the VIN code. Let's move on.

The tenth character indicates model year release. In our case, the letter “F” indicates that the car was released in 2015.

The eleventh character names the location where the plant is located. The letter "E" indicates that the car came off the assembly line Ford plant producing trucks in Kentucky.

The VIN code is completed by six characters - serial numbers machines as they come off the assembly line. Our F00187 symbols indicate that this Expedition went off the line in the first two hundred of one of the lots.

It is noteworthy that there are three characters that were not, are not and will not be in the VIN code. The letters "I", "O" and "Q" are prohibited in identification codes, since when a car is stolen, attackers can easily change these signs to numbers 0 and 1, cook up new documents and forever deprive them of hope of finding the missing car.

Options VIN decoding- The code varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. For example, BMW VIN codes or Honda will differ slightly from the decoding order given in the article.