Enter the 17-character VIN of your Hyundai 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 Hyundai and the decoder reads what the code itself carries: the manufacturer, the model year and the country of manufacture. Our data covers 64 Hyundai models, from Accent, Atos and Getz to IONIQ 5, IONIQ 6 and Nexo, with body styles ranging from Hatchback and Sedan to SUV, Wagon, Coupe and Van. The decoder is free and needs no registration.
A VIN does not record accidents, mileage, theft or previous owners. That information comes from a paid vehicle history report, which is a separate step from the decoder.
Pick a Hyundai model to see how its VIN works.
The first three characters are the World Manufacturer Identifier, or WMI. For Hyundai we recognise ten of them: 2HM, 5NM, 5NP, 9BH, KM8, KMF, MAL, NLH, NLJ and TMA. The first character points to the country of manufacture, so the list spans Canada (2HM), the United States (5NM, 5NP), Brazil (9BH), South Korea (KM8, KMF), India (MAL), Turkey (NLH, NLJ) and the Czech Republic (TMA). These are the codes we map to the brand, and our list does not claim to be complete.
Characters 4 to 8 are the descriptor section, where the maker encodes details such as model and body type. Character 9 is the check digit. It is required in North America, while many European VINs fill that position differently, so a VIN from a Czech-built or Turkish-built car may not follow the North American check rule. Letters I, O and Q are never used in a VIN, which avoids confusion with 1 and 0.
Character 10 is the model year, and character 11 is the plant. Characters 12 to 17 are the serial number. As an example, a K in position 10 means 2019, an N means 2022 and a 1 means 2001. The 17-character format applies to cars built since 1981, so that is where the decoder works best.
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 usual places are the base of the windscreen on the driver's side, a label on the door pillar and the vehicle registration documents. Compare all of them, since the number should be identical everywhere.
The first three characters are the WMI, and they show who built the car and in which country. We recognise 2HM, 5NM, 5NP, 9BH, KM8, KMF, MAL, NLH, NLJ and TMA for Hyundai. A VIN that starts differently is not necessarily a problem, because our list is not complete.
Look at the 10th character. For example, J stands for 2018, L for 2020 and R for 2024. Digits are used for 2001 to 2009, so a 7 means 2007.
It cannot show accidents, mileage, theft records or the number of owners, because none of that is stored in the VIN. It also does not tell you how a particular car has been looked after.
Make sure the VIN on the car matches the one in the documents, and that the decoded model year and country fit what the seller tells you. Then ask for service records and look the car over in person, ideally with a mechanic.