Enter the 17-character VIN of your Mercury 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 Mercury VIN and the decoder reads what is encoded in it: the manufacturer, the model year and the country of manufacture. Our data covers 14 Mercury models, from Capri, Cougar and Grand Marquis to Mountaineer, Sable and Villager, with model years from 1977 to 2011. It 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 you can look at once the decoder has confirmed the basics.
The first three characters are the World Manufacturer Identifier, or WMI. For Mercury we recognise four of them: 1ME, 1ZW, 3ME and FM2. Together they belong to two countries, the United States and Mexico, which is where the country of manufacture in your result comes from. The list is the set of codes we map to the brand, not every code that could ever appear.
Characters 4 to 8 are the descriptor section, which describes the vehicle itself. Character 9 is the check digit, which is required in North America. Character 10 is the model year, and character 11 is the plant. The last six characters, 12 to 17, are the serial number of that particular car.
The model year character is a single letter or digit, and the letters I, O and Q are never used in a VIN. For a Mercury in our range, a 5 in position 10 means 2005, a Y means 2000 and an L means 1990. Our version data starts in 1977, but the 17-character format applies to cars built since 1981, so that is where the decoder is most useful.
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 at the base of the windshield on the driver side, on a label on the driver door frame, and in the registration papers. Compare at least two of these, since they should all show the same 17 characters.
The first three characters are the WMI, which identifies the manufacturer and the country. We map 1ME, 1ZW, 3ME and FM2 to Mercury, covering the United States and Mexico. If your VIN starts differently, that does not mean anything is wrong, it only means the code is not on our list.
Look at the 10th character. A 5 stands for 2005, an A for 2010, a Y for 2000. The decoder reads this for you and shows the year in the result.
It cannot show accidents, mileage, theft records or the number of owners, because none of that is stored in the VIN. The decoder only reads the manufacturer, model year and country of manufacture from the 17 characters.
Make sure the VIN on the car matches the one in the documents and that the decoded model year fits the listing. Then look at the body, whether it is a Sedan, Wagon, Convertible or SUV, for signs of repair, and ask for service records.