Enter the 17-character VIN of your Triumph 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 Triumph and the decoder reads three things from it: the manufacturer, the model year and the country of manufacture. Our data covers 12 Triumph models, among them the 1500, 2.5 PI MK, 2000 MkII, 2500, Acclaim, Dolomite, Spitfire, Stag, Toledo, TR 6, TR 7 and TR 8, with model years from 1962 to 2000. The decoder is free and needs no registration.
The decoder reads only the VIN, so it cannot tell you anything about one particular car's past, such as accidents, mileage, theft or previous owners. That information comes from a paid vehicle history report.
The first three characters of a VIN are the World Manufacturer Identifier, or WMI. For Triumph we map two of them, SAT and SMT, and both belong to the United Kingdom. Those are the codes we recognise for the brand, and the decoder uses them to name the manufacturer and the country of manufacture.
The tenth character is the model year. A Triumph with D in that position is a 1983 model, an L stands for 1990 and a Y for 2000, the end of the range in our data. The 11th character is the plant, and characters 12 to 17 are the serial number. Characters 4 to 8 describe the vehicle. In our data the body styles are Sedan, Estate, Convertible, Cabriolet and Coupe, and the highest power listed is 150 hp.
One limit applies to this brand in particular. Our version data starts in 1962, but the 17-character VIN format is used for cars built since 1981, so the decoder can only read a VIN from that later part of the range. The ninth character is a check digit. It is required in North America, while many European VINs fill it differently, so a British-built car should not be judged on that position alone. The 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, then look for the same number on the car itself, for example on a plate in the engine bay or door frame or at the base of the windscreen. The exact place can vary from car to car, and the number on the car should match the one in the papers.
They are the first three characters of a VIN, the manufacturer code. SAT and SMT are the two codes we map to Triumph, and both point to the United Kingdom. Our list is not complete, so a VIN that starts differently is simply one this page does not cover.
Look at the tenth character. K means 1989, for example, and T means 1996. This works for cars built since 1981, which is when the 17-character format came into use.
It cannot show accidents, mileage, theft records or the number of owners, because none of that is stored in the VIN. The decoder only translates the characters of the number itself.
Make sure the VIN on the car matches the registration documents, then decode it to confirm the model year and country of manufacture fit the car being offered. After that, ask for service records and have the car inspected in person, since the VIN alone says nothing about its condition.