
It's worth taking a few minutes to do a simple VIN owner lookup to protect yourself. Buying a car is a significant investment. If you take the time to find the registered owner of a vehicle by VIN, you'll get the answers you need, like whether there were any odometer rollbacks.
LOOK UP VEHICLE BY VIN FULL
And, no, you can't always trust the odometer reading to give you the full story. Besides trying to pawn off a stolen vehicle, unscrupulous sellers can mischaracterize an auto or try to hide previous damage.įor example, how would you know if the car you're considering wasn't previously designated special-use, such as a taxi or police vehicle? These kinds of autos absorb a lot of abuse and accumulate excessive mileage. The old saying, "you get what you pay for, "doesn't always ring true u2013 especially when it comes to used cars. Why Should I Find the Registered Owner of a Vehicle by VIN? And nothing less is good enough when thousands of dollars are at stake. Find out the ownership information or ownership history of this car by VIN, and you'll discover more than you bargained for.īecause in addition to the list of titleholders, you'll also get the car's entire backstory. Individuals can also run a DMV VIN checku00a0to obtain used vehicle information.Ī VIN lookup is your entry point into a car's past, shedding light into areas that are not visible otherwise. VIN is what the Department of Motor Vehicles uses to track pertinent data on every registered vehicle, information such as title transfers, damage claims, theft, recalls, and so on. The 17 alphanumeric characters that comprise the VIN contain details about that particular automobile, including its country of origin, manufacturing plant, model, engine code, and other specifications. In the next sections, we'll explain how you can use the VIN to reveal a car's hidden history.

Performing a vehicle owner lookup is, without doubt, the easiest, most fail-safe way to protect yourself.Įvery car is issued a unique 17-digit identifier during manufacturing called a vehicle identification number (VIN).

This is called the World Manufacturer Identifier or WMI code.Too often, unsuspecting consumers inadvertently buy stolen cars and suffer the consequences financially, if not legally. The first three characters of every VIN number uniquely identify the manufacturer of the vehicle. World Manufacturer Identifier (WMI): Country of Origin Character Codes Wondering what all the characters in your vehicle's VIN stand for?
LOOK UP VEHICLE BY VIN HOW TO
How to Decode the Vehicle Identification Number If your vehicle was made before 1981, the VIN will most likely contain 11 characters. The VIN Decoder lookup is intended for use with vehicles manufactured since 1981. The information is provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) from the data submitted by the manufacturers to NHTSA. How to Use the VIN Decoder to Do a VIN Number CheckĮnter your vehicle's 17-character Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) in the field above to look up and receive an instant report on its manufacturer, brand, make and model, body style, engine size, assembly plant, and model year. If you can't find the VIN number on the vehicle, you should also be able to locate it on your vehicle's title or liability insurance documents. A semitrailer's VIN is located on the front part of the semitrailer on the left side. A motorcycle's VIN is usually on the steering neck below the handlebars, although sometimes it's on the motor or on the frame near the motor. Open the door and look around the area where the door latches to the car.

You may also find the VIN number on the driver's side door pillar. The best way to see it is to look through the windshield from outside the car. On most passenger cars, you may find the VIN number on the front of the dashboard on the driver's side.
