Decode a chassis number (VIN) for free
Type in the number, photograph it or upload an image – manufacturer, model series, country of origin and year of manufacture are in the number itself. No registration.
Seventeen positions, three sections.
A chassis number is no coincidence but is built according to ISO 3779. The first three characters name the manufacturer and its country, positions 4 to 9 the model series and equipment, and positions 10 to 17 the model year, the plant and the serial number. The letters I, O and Q are excluded – they are easily confused with 1 and 0.
That is why a good deal can be said from the number alone, without any database. What it does not contain: licence plate, keeper, mileage or accident history. Anyone offering that has it from other sources.
On the year of manufacture – calculated honestly
Position 10 carries the model year, not the build date: a vehicle of model year 2013 usually left the line from mid-2012. That is why a two-year span is shown here rather than a single number.
The code repeats every 30 years – “D” means 1983 or 2013. For North American numbers, position 7 settles this unambiguously (letter from 2010, digit up to 2009; 49 CFR 565). Europe has no such rule; there the more recent cycle is given as the answer and the older one as a note beside it.
In LinaFora, the app reads the number on the vehicle.
The same decoding is built into the protocol: photograph the number, frame the area, have it read – and the vehicle type is in the protocol before the first tick is made. In addition there is the shared vehicle library, which knows the specific type for a number.
