Enter the 17-character VIN of your Kia 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 decoder tells you three things: that the manufacturer is Kia, which model year the car belongs to, and which country it was built in. It is free and needs no registration. Our Kia data covers 57 models, from the Avella and Picanto to the EV3, EV6 and EV9, in body styles from hatchback and sedan to SUV, wagon, convertible and roadster.
The VIN itself says nothing about accidents, mileage, theft or previous owners. That information comes from a paid vehicle history report, which you can look at once you know the basics of the car you are checking.
Pick a Kia model to see how its VIN works.
The first three characters are the WMI, the code that identifies the manufacturer and the country of build. We map these codes to Kia: 3KP, 5XX, 5XY, 9UW, KNA, KND, KNJ, MS0, U5Y, U6Y, USY and XWE. They point to seven countries: Mexico, the United States, Uruguay, South Korea, Myanmar, Slovakia and Russia. A VIN beginning KNA, KND or KNJ is a South Korean build, 3KP is Mexican, 5XY is American and XWE is Russian. The list is the set of codes we recognise, not every code that exists, so a VIN with a different start is not a cause for concern.
Characters 4 to 8 are the descriptor section, where the maker encodes details of the vehicle. Character 9 is the check digit. North American VINs are required to use it, while many European VINs fill that position differently. Letters I, O and Q are never used in a VIN, which avoids confusion with 1 and 0.
Character 10 is the model year. An R means 2024 and a K means 2019, for example, while a car from 2023 carries a P. Character 11 is the assembly plant and characters 12 to 17 are the serial number. This 17-character format 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.
It is usually printed on a plate visible at the base of the windscreen and on a sticker on the door pillar. It also appears on the registration documents. Compare the number on the car with the papers character by character.
The first three characters are the WMI. We recognise 3KP, 5XX, 5XY, 9UW, KNA, KND, KNJ, MS0, U5Y, U6Y, USY and XWE for Kia, covering Mexico, the United States, Uruguay, South Korea, Myanmar, Slovakia and Russia. Our list is not complete, so other starting characters do not mean anything is wrong.
Look at the 10th character. A letter or digit stands for the year, for example K for 2019, N for 2022 and R for 2024. The decoder reads this for you.
It cannot show accidents, mileage, theft records or the number of owners, because none of that is stored in the VIN. It reads only the manufacturer, the model year and the country of manufacture.
Make sure the VIN on the car matches the documents, and that the decoded model year and country fit what the seller tells you. Then ask about the car's past owners, mileage and any damage, since the VIN cannot answer those questions.