Enter the 17-character VIN of your Bertone to see the factory basics. Free, with no registration.
Look on the dashboard, the driver's door frame or in the registration document.
Type all 17 characters. The letters I, O and Q are never used in a VIN.
See the factory basics for free, and order a full report for the history behind the VIN.
Enter the 17-character VIN of a Bertone and the decoder reads the manufacturer, the model year and the country of manufacture from it. Our data for the brand is small: one model, the Freeclimber, with version data covering model years 1989 to 1996 and a highest listed power of 129 hp. The decoder is free and needs no registration.
A VIN does not contain accidents, mileage, theft records or previous owners. That information comes from a paid vehicle history report.
Pick a Bertone model to see how its VIN works.
The first three characters of a VIN are the World Manufacturer Identifier, or WMI. At the moment we have no WMI codes mapped to Bertone, so there is no list of prefixes to show here and no country to name. Our list is not complete, so a VIN that starts with other characters tells you nothing about its authenticity.
The tenth character is the model year. For the 1989 to 1996 range in our data, the letters run K (1989), L (1990), M (1991), N (1992), P (1993), R (1994), S (1995) and T (1996). A Bertone VIN with P in tenth position, for example, points to model year 1993. These letters repeat after 30 years, so K could also mean 2019, but within the Bertone range in our data K means 1989.
Characters 4 to 8 describe the vehicle, and character 9 is a check digit. North American VINs are required to use it, while many European VINs fill it differently. Character 11 usually indicates the plant, and characters 12 to 17 are the serial number. Any car built since 1981 should carry a VIN in this 17-character format.
Every VIN has six parts. This is what each of them means.
| Part | Characters | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| WMI | 1 to 3 | World manufacturer identifier: who built the vehicle and where |
| VDS | 4 to 8 | Vehicle descriptor: model, body type and engine, as set by the manufacturer |
| Check digit | 9 | Control value that helps confirm the VIN is valid |
| Model year | 10 | Code for the model year |
| Plant | 11 | Code for the assembly plant |
| Serial | 12 to 17 | Production sequence number of this vehicle |
On the driver's side, visible through the windshield.
On a sticker on the door frame or the edge of the door.
Printed in the vehicle registration or title.
Stamped on the firewall or the frame on many models.
A VIN is built from six parts, and each one says something about the vehicle. Our guides explain how to read it and what it can and cannot tell you.
Enter the 17-character VIN and see the factory basics in seconds.
It is usually on a plate at the base of the windscreen or on a door pillar, and it is printed in the registration papers. Compare the number on the car with the one in the documents character by character.
The first three characters are the WMI, which identifies the manufacturer and the country of manufacture. We have no WMI codes mapped to Bertone yet, so the decoder may not name the brand from the prefix alone. Our list is incomplete, and that does not make any VIN wrong.
Look at the tenth character. In the 1989 to 1996 range of our Freeclimber data, K stands for 1989, L for 1990, M for 1991, N for 1992, P for 1993, R for 1994, S for 1995 and T for 1996.
It reads only the VIN itself, so it cannot tell you about accidents, mileage, theft or earlier owners. It also does not describe the condition of a particular car.
Make sure the VIN on the car matches the registration papers, and that the model year letter fits the age the seller claims. Ask for service records and inspect the car in person, since a VIN decode only confirms basic identity.