Free VIN Decoder for Canada
Make, model, model year, engine and plant of manufacture for a vehicle sold in Canada, read from the seventeen-character VIN.
How a Canadian VIN Is Read. Seventeen characters, four parts.
- 1–3
World Manufacturer Identifier
The manufacturer and the country of manufacture. A first character of 2 marks a vehicle built in Canada, 1, 4 and 5 the United States and 3 Mexico.
- 4–8
Vehicle Descriptor
The model, body style, engine and restraint systems. Each manufacturer declares its own layout for these positions.
- 9
Check Digit
A calculated character that detects errors in the VIN. Vehicles built for North America carry a valid check digit, so a VIN that fails the check usually contains a misread character.
- 10–17
Model Year, Plant and Serial
Position 10 is the model year, position 11 the production plant and positions 12 to 17 the serial number of the individual vehicle.
Questions. Coverage, history and limits.
- Does a VIN need to begin with 2 to be decoded?
- No. A first character of 2 marks a vehicle built in Canada, but most vehicles sold in Canada are built in the United States, Mexico, Japan or Europe. The decoder reads any valid VIN except those of vehicles built in South Korea.
- Which details does the report show?
- Make, model, model year, body class, engine, fuel type, transmission, drive type, safety equipment and the plant of manufacture, where the data is held. A missing value means that no data is held for that variable, not that the feature is absent.
- Does the report show recalls?
- No. Recall campaigns are published by make, model and year, and the definitive status of a specific vehicle is confirmed with the manufacturer or an authorised dealer.
- Does the report show the history of the vehicle?
- No. A VIN decode identifies the vehicle as built. It does not show accidents, odometer readings, registration history or liens. In Ontario, the Used Vehicle Information Package is the document that lists registration history and liens for a private sale.
- Can vehicles built in South Korea be decoded?
- Not by this page. VINs that begin with KL to KR follow Korean market conventions. The Korean VIN Decoder reads them from Korean market data.
- How many VINs can be decoded?
- Up to 20 VINs per hour from one browser. Dealerships using Carlio decode VINs without this limit, directly in the vehicle inventory.
- Is the VIN stored?
- The VIN is not recorded against any account or person. Decoded results are cached for up to seven days so that repeated decodes are faster.
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