Volkswagen VIN Decoder | Check Any Used VW

The VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) is a unique 17-character identifier assigned to each vehicle. We use it to decode the manufacturer, model, year, country of origin, and to query the official recall registry for that market. Title, accident, and ownership history are NOT in the VIN — those require a country-specific official extract (HistoVec in France, DVLA MOT in the UK, NMVTIS in the US, etc.).

The ISO 3779 standard (1977) set the VIN at 17 characters to allow unique identification of every vehicle worldwide. The first 3 identify the manufacturer (WMI), the next 6 describe the vehicle (VDS), and the last 8 make up the serial number (VIS). The letters I, O, and Q are excluded to avoid confusion with the digits 1, 0, and 9.

Basic VIN decoding (manufacturer, country, year) is free on Automano. For the full history (accidents, mileage, owners), use the official extracts (HistoVec for French vehicles, MOT history for UK cars, the national registry elsewhere); the £5.90 Automano report adds confirmed identification and official recalls.