Enter the 17-character VIN of your Bitter 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.
The Bitter decoder reads the 17-character VIN and shows the manufacturer, the model year and the country of manufacture, as far as the characters allow. Our data for the brand covers two models, Type 3 and Vero, with model years from 1991 to 2008, cabriolet and sedan bodies, and a highest power of 272 hp in the version data.
A VIN does not contain accidents, mileage, theft records or previous owners. That information comes from a paid vehicle history report. The decoder itself is free and needs no registration.
The first three characters of a VIN are the World Manufacturer Identifier, or WMI. It names the maker and the country where the car was built. At the moment we have no WMI codes mapped to Bitter, so there are no countries to list either. Our WMI list is not complete, and a VIN that starts with other characters is not a problem. It only means we have no code on file for the brand yet.
Position 10 holds the model year. For the years in our Bitter data, 1991 to 2008, the characters run like this: M is 1991, and the letters then continue up to Y for 2000. From 2001 the code switches to digits, so 5 is 2005 and 8 is 2008. The letters I, O and Q are never used in a VIN, which helps when you copy one down from a document.
Positions 4 to 8 describe the vehicle, position 9 is a check digit, position 11 usually points to the plant, and positions 12 to 17 are the serial number. The check digit is required in North America, while many European VINs fill that position differently. A different value there says nothing by itself. All of this applies to cars built since 1981.
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.
The VIN is usually printed on the vehicle documents and stamped or plated on the car itself, often at the base of the windscreen or in a door frame. Copy all 17 characters exactly and enter them in the decoder above.
The first three characters are the WMI, which identifies the maker and the country of manufacture. We have no WMI codes mapped to Bitter at the moment, so we cannot name one here. That does not make any particular VIN wrong.
Look at the 10th character. In the range of our Bitter data, M stands for 1991, 5 for 2005 and 8 for 2008. Our version data covers 1991 to 2008.
It reads only the VIN, so it cannot show accidents, mileage, theft or how many owners the car has had. None of that is stored in the 17 characters.
Make sure the VIN on the car matches the one in the documents, character for character. Then check that the model year from the 10th character fits the car in front of you and the body style, cabriolet or sedan, that was advertised. Ask for service records and, if you can, have the car inspected in person.