Enter the 17-character VIN of your Dodge 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 a 17-character VIN and the Dodge decoder reads what is built into the code itself: the manufacturer, the model year and the country of manufacture. Our data covers 23 Dodge models, from Avenger, Caliber and Caravan through Challenger, Charger and Durango to Neon, RAM and Viper, with model years running from 1969 to the present. The decoder is free and needs no registration.
A VIN does not record accidents, mileage, theft or previous owners, so the decoder cannot tell you any of that. That information comes from a paid vehicle history report.
The first three characters are the World Manufacturer Identifier, or WMI. For Dodge we recognise these codes: 1C4, 2B3, 2B4, 2B5, 2B6, 2B7, 2B8, 2C7, 2D3, 2D4, 2D6 and 2D7. Together they belong to five countries: the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan and Germany. Which code you see depends on where and how the vehicle was built, so two Dodges can start differently and both be perfectly normal. The list is not exhaustive, and a VIN that starts with other characters is not a problem in itself.
Characters 4 to 8 describe the vehicle, and the decoder uses them together with the WMI to identify the manufacturer. Position 9 is the check digit, which is required in North America. Position 10 is the model year, and this is where many people get confused. The letter L stands for 2020, P for 2023 and S for 2025. Letters repeat every 30 years, so a B can mean 1981 or 2011, and the rest of the VIN helps settle which.
Position 11 is the assembly plant, and positions 12 to 17 are the serial number. The 17-character format applies to vehicles built since 1981. Our Dodge data reaches back to 1969, but a decoder works from the full VIN, so very early cars may carry a different identifier. Letters I, O and Q are never used in a VIN, which is worth remembering if you are copying one from a document and a character looks like a zero or a one.
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.
Look at the base of the windshield on the driver's side, where it can be read from outside the car, and on the sticker in the driver's door jamb. It is also printed on the registration and insurance papers. Compare these copies, because they should all show the same 17 characters.
The first three characters are the WMI, which identifies the manufacturer and the country of manufacture. Codes we map to Dodge include 1C4, 2B3, 2C7 and 2D3, and the full list is shown above. The characters that follow describe the vehicle itself.
Check the 10th character. For example, K means 2019, M means 2021 and R means 2024. For vehicles from 1981 onward the letters repeat every 30 years, so a B could be 1981 or 2011.
It reads only the VIN, so it cannot show accidents, mileage, theft records or the number of owners. It also does not describe the condition of a particular car. Those details are not stored in the VIN.
Make sure the VIN on the windshield, the door jamb and the papers match, and that the decoded model year and country fit what the seller tells you. Then inspect the car in person and ask for service records. Our data lists body styles from Coupe and Sedan to SUV, Wagon, Hatchback and Convertible, so check that the car in front of you is the body style in the listing.