Enter the 17-character VIN of your Porsche 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 Porsche decoder reads the manufacturer, the model year and the country of manufacture straight from the code. Our data covers 22 Porsche models, from the 356, 911 and 928 to the Cayenne, Macan, Panamera and Taycan, with version data running from 1948 to the present.
A VIN does not record accidents, mileage, theft or previous owners. That information comes from a paid vehicle history report, while the decoder itself is free and needs no registration.
The first three characters are the World Manufacturer Identifier. For Porsche we recognise four of them: WP0, WP1, WP2 and WP3. All four belong to Germany, so the decoder reports Germany as the country of manufacture when a VIN starts with one of them. Our list is not complete, and the codes shown here are simply the ones we recognise for the brand.
Characters 4 to 8 are the descriptor section, and character 9 is the check digit. North American VINs require it, while many European VINs fill that position differently, so an unusual ninth character on a European car says nothing by itself. The tenth character gives the model year, the eleventh the assembly plant, and characters 12 to 17 are the serial number.
The year letter repeats every thirty years, so context matters. A J in position 10 means 1988 or 2018, and an L means 1990 or 2020. Both pairs fall inside the Porsche model range. Seventeen-character VINs apply to cars built since 1981, so the decoder is meant for those. Letters I, O and Q are never used in a VIN.
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.
Start with the registration documents, where the full 17 characters are printed. On the car, the VIN is usually visible at the base of the windscreen on the driver's side and on a label in the door frame.
The first three characters are the manufacturer code. We map WP0, WP1, WP2 and WP3 to Porsche, and all of them point to Germany. A VIN that starts differently is not necessarily a problem, because our list of codes is not complete.
Look at the tenth character. For example, K stands for 2019 and L for 2020, while a digit such as 9 stands for 2009. Letters repeat after thirty years, so a J can mean 1988 or 2018, and you need to know roughly which era the car is from.
It shows the manufacturer, model year and country of manufacture, nothing more. Accidents, mileage, theft records and the number of owners are not stored in the VIN.
Compare the VIN on the documents with the one on the car and make sure they match character for character. Then run the VIN through the decoder to confirm that the model year and country fit what the seller says. Ask for service records and have the car inspected before you pay.