Enter the 17-character VIN of your Smart 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 Smart decoder reads the manufacturer, the model year and the country of manufacture straight from the code. It is free and needs no registration. Our data covers Smart model years from 1998 to 2023 and models such as the #1, #3, Crossblade, EQ fortwo, Forfour, Fortwo and Roadster.
The decoder does not show accidents, mileage, theft records or previous owners, because a VIN does not contain them. That information comes from a paid vehicle history report.
A VIN has 17 characters, and the letters I, O and Q are never used, so they cannot be mistaken for 1 and 0. The first three characters are the WMI, the world manufacturer identifier. The WMI we map to Smart is WME, and it belongs to Germany. Our list of codes is not exhaustive, so treat WME as the code we recognise for the brand, not as the only one that can exist.
Characters 4 to 8 describe the vehicle, and the exact meaning of these positions is set by the manufacturer. Character 9 is a check digit. It is required in North America, while many European VINs fill that position differently, so a Smart VIN should not be judged by it. Character 10 is the model year, character 11 the plant, and characters 12 to 17 the serial number.
The model year character is the easiest part to check yourself. For Smart, a W in position 10 stands for 1998, the first year in our data, and a P stands for 2023, the last. A 3 would mean 2003. Between those two ends, the letters follow the standard sequence used for 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.
Look for the 17-character code on the vehicle registration papers, and on the car itself at the base of the windscreen or on the door frame. Compare the two, since they should read exactly the same.
The first three characters are the WMI, which identifies the manufacturer and the country. WME is the code we link to Smart, and it points to Germany.
Read the 10th character. In our data, W means 1998 and P means 2023, with the rest of the standard letters and digits covering the years in between. The decoder does this for you when you enter the full VIN.
It cannot show accident damage, mileage, theft status or the number of owners. None of that is stored in the VIN, and the decoder reads only the 17 characters.
Make sure the VIN on the car matches the one in the papers, and decode it to confirm that the manufacturer and model year agree with the advert. Then inspect the car in person, since the VIN alone says nothing about its condition.