Enter the 17-character VIN of your Ford 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 Ford decoder tells you who built the vehicle, the model year and the country of manufacture. Our data covers 73 Ford models, from Aerostar and Bronco to Focus, Fiesta and the F-Series trucks. It includes body styles from hatchback, sedan and wagon to pickup, van, convertible and roadster.
The decoder reads only the VIN itself, so it says nothing about a particular car's past. Accidents, mileage, theft records and previous owners are not stored in the VIN, and that information comes from a paid vehicle history report.
Pick a Ford model to see how its VIN works.
The first three characters are the WMI, the code that names the manufacturer and where the vehicle was built. The codes we map to Ford are 210, 0VF, 17V, 1FA, 1FB, 1FC, 1FD, 1FM, 1FT, 2FA, 2FB and 2FC. Together they belong to Canada, the United States, Mexico, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Germany. That is why a Ford can show a very different country of manufacture depending on the car. Our list is not complete, so a VIN that starts differently is not a problem, it just may not be one we recognise yet.
Characters 4 to 8 are the descriptor section, which the manufacturer uses to describe the vehicle. Character 9 is the check digit. It is required in North America, while many European VINs fill that position in their own way. Character 10 gives the model year, character 11 the assembly plant, and characters 12 to 17 are the serial number. The letters I, O and Q are never used, to avoid confusion with 1 and 0.
The tenth character is the quickest thing to read by hand. An F there means model year 2015, an M means 2021, and a 9 means 2009. Our version data runs from 1920 to the present, but the 17-character system only applies to vehicles built since 1981, so the B for 1981 is the earliest letter you will see.
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 windscreen on the driver's side, on the sticker in the door frame, and in the registration papers. Check that the number is the same in every place.
The first three characters are the WMI. Codes we link to Ford include 1FA, 1FM, 1FT, 2FA and 17V, and each tells you the maker and the country where the vehicle was built. If your VIN begins with something else, the decoder may simply not recognise it yet.
Use the 10th character. For example, F is 2015, H is 2017, L is 2020 and M is 2021. The same letters repeat every 30 years, so the model itself helps you tell the right decade.
It cannot show accidents, mileage, theft records or the number of owners, because none of that is stored in the VIN. It also cannot say what condition a specific car is in.
Compare the VIN on the car with the one in the documents, and make sure the model year the decoder gives matches the advertisement. Then look at the service records and have the car inspected in person.