About PlateVIN
PlateVIN decodes a 17-character VIN with NHTSA’s public data, lists the recall campaigns for the vehicle and publishes the specifications NHTSA holds for popular models.
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What PlateVIN does
PlateVIN reads a vehicle identification number and tells you what the manufacturer built. You type the 17 characters, the page checks them, and NHTSA’s vPIC service decodes them into make, model, year, engine, body, safety equipment and plant. Under the result are the recall campaigns NHTSA lists for that make, model and model year, and a link to NHTSA’s own lookup for an exact car.
The site also publishes pages for the make, the model and the model year of twelve popular makes, with the dimensions, weights and recall campaigns NHTSA holds for them. The guides explain how a VIN is built, how the check digit works and what a decoder can and cannot tell you.
Data from one public source
Everything on the site comes from NHTSA’s public APIs and from the text of 49 CFR part 565, the federal rule that defines the VIN. We add no figures of our own and we show no sample results for invented VINs. The method page describes how the data is fetched, cleaned and shown, and what is left out.
Not a history report
A VIN decoder describes the vehicle as built. It does not know about accidents, owners, mileage or title status, and PlateVIN does not claim to. Use it to confirm that a car is what it is said to be, then check the history somewhere that has it.
How it is paid for
PlateVIN is free. It is funded by a small number of clearly labelled ads that load only after you accept cookies. Ads never appear above the VIN field or inside a result.
Corrections
If a figure on a make, model or year page differs from what NHTSA shows, write to jonathan.holmlidh@gmail.com with the page and a link to the NHTSA page that shows the right value.