Vehicle check by VIN code
Tips for motorists

Vehicle check by VIN code

03.03.2023 /

Most modern motorists are aware of the need for a thorough inspection of the car when buying it in the secondary market for hidden defects or damage. However, no less important these days is a check on the so-called legal purity of the purchased car: the number of owners, being in collateral, the history of an accident, and so on. Checking the vehicle by its VIN can help with this crucial information that sellers often want to hide.

What is VIN

The VIN code of a car (from the English Vehicle identification number, VIN) is a combination of Arabic numerals and Latin letters, thanks to which any industrially produced car can be identified. In total, this code consists of 17 characters. This whole combination is not chaotic and meaningless. On the contrary, each part of this long code gives certain information about the vehicle. So, the first digit is assigned depending on the country of the car manufacturer. The second and third letter characters indicate a specific manufacturer. The following combination of five letters and numbers describes the basic characteristics of the car. Also, from the VIN code, you can get information about the year of manufacture of the car, the specific manufacturing plant from which it came off the assembly line, as well as the unique serial number of the vehicle. Over the course of more than forty years of using car identification codes (since 1977 in the USA), certain standards have been developed that have assigned a predetermined and in all cases the same meaning to each sign. These standards at the level of international acts are established by ISO 3779:2009.

However, we note that reality leaves its mark on these simple rules. In my practice, it sometimes turned out that some automakers use the 17 characters of the vehicle identification code in a slightly different way than most people do. The fact is that ISO standards are purely advisory in nature, so some manufacturers consider it possible to deviate from them, which sometimes makes it difficult to decipher VIN codes.

Vehicle check by VIN code
Deciphering the VIN code Each character or group of characters can tell a knowledgeable person the whole ins and outs of a car

Consider all the complex information presented above using the example of a fictional car made in Russia. The first characters for the countries of Europe: the final letters of the Latin alphabet from S to Z. The codes XS-XW are reserved for the countries of the former USSR. Followed by the manufacturer's code. For example, for KAMAZ it is XTC, and for VAZ it is Z8N.

Another important question is where to find the vehicle identification number in order to get information from it. In all cases, it is placed on special plates called "nameplates". The specific location depends on the manufacturer, car model and a number of other factors:

  • on the door frame
  • on a plate near the windshield;
  • on the front of the engines;
  • inside the left wheel;
  • on the steering wheel;
  • under the floor covering;
  • in addition, an easy-to-read VIN code can be found in the official documents for the car (in its passport, warranty card, and others).

One way or another, manufacturers try to place this important information on those parts of the car that remain unchanged during the most serious repairs to the car.

Read about red license plates: https://bumper.guru/gosnomer/krasnyie-nomera-na-mashine-v-rossii.html

In many cases, when a car owner tries to hide the true history of his car, usually when selling it, he may make unauthorized changes to the VIN number. Several important patterns will help calculate dishonesty:

  • in none of its parts does the original VIN contain the symbols I, O and Q, since they can become indistinguishable from the numbers 1 and 0 during the wear of the surfaces of the car;
  • the last four characters in any identification code are always digits;
  • usually written in one line (nearly ninety percent of the time). If it is knocked out in two lines, then it is not allowed to break one of the single semantic blocks.

If you notice that the car code you are studying does not meet one of the criteria listed above, then this should raise doubts about its authenticity and, therefore, scare you away from performing any operations with the car.

Thus, the VIN number is the most valuable source of knowledge that any industrially manufactured car has. With the necessary skills, you can get all the information you need from these 17 characters.

Video: about decoding the VIN code

How to check the VIN code of a car before buying. Maxim Shelkov

Why do you need to check the car by VIN-code

Today, unlike the situation of past decades, it is possible to learn a wide range of information easily and completely free of charge. To do this, you can use both official sources like the traffic police website, and some trusted commercial sites that charge a small commission for complete information about the car.

The most important purpose of this kind of checks is the purchase of vehicles in the secondary market. In our region, the statistics of the ratio of the primary and secondary automotive market varies greatly from region to region. But, one way or another, in most cases, buying a used car is practically the only possible way out for the average Russian due to the low standard of living. Even in the most prosperous metropolitan area, the share of new car purchases is only 40%. Therefore, out of ten cars purchased in Moscow, 6 are used.

Find out about the Volkswagen vin code: https://bumper.guru/zarubezhnye-avto/volkswagen/rasshifrovka-vin-volkswagen.html

Table: statistics on the ratio of the primary and secondary market in Russia

RegionShare of primary market (%)Secondary market share (%)Ratio
Moscow39,960,10,66
The Republic of Tatarstan33,366,70,5
St. Petersburg33,067,00,49
Samara region29,470,60,42
Udmurt republic27,572,50,38
Perm26,273,80,36
Moscow region25,574,50,34
The Republic of Bashkortostan24,975,10,32
Leningrad Region24,076,30,31

The information is presented according to the analytical agency "Avtostat".

In this regard, the questions of checking the proposed object of purchase arise in full growth in order to avoid the acquisition of a "pig in a poke". The main parameters of the check are: the number and composition of owners, the presence of accidents, unpaid fines, loans secured by car pledges and other phenomena undesirable for the new owner. Checking the car in advance according to these parameters will protect you from colliding with scammers or simply dishonest sellers. Knowing the full history of the car will also allow you to more accurately determine the market value of the vehicle.

About ways to check traffic police fines: https://bumper.guru/shtrafy/shtrafyi-gibdd-2017-proverit-po-nomeru-avtomobilya.html

Ways to check cars by VIN for free

If you want to get information about cars without spending your money, then in order to clarify all the necessary information and get reliable results, you will have to turn to several Internet resources at once or personally to the appropriate traffic police department.

Check at the traffic police department

At first glance, the easiest and most reliable way to check the pre-sale inspection of a used car from hand is to contact the competent authorities directly (the nearest traffic police department). Indeed, this method has the right to exist, but it also has a number of traditional inconveniences, which, along with the availability of more affordable and simpler alternatives, repel motorists from it. Firstly, the most important drawback of such a check is the need to appear to a potential buyer with the current owner, since employees of the authorities will not disclose information about the history of the car to the first comer. Secondly, a personal appeal to the traffic police requires a lot of free time and patience, since you have to wait in line and have a conversation with a police officer, who are far from always being kind and pleasant in communication. There are other "pitfalls".

From personal experience, I can say that if a car is put on the wanted list only in one region, and the planned transaction takes place in another, then in order to obtain information, you need to contact the federal database. Unfortunately, some employees are not always ready to do their work carefully and efficiently, so the results obtained in this way may be incomplete or even unreliable.

Check on the official website of the traffic police

Since February 2014, a new service has appeared on the portal of the State traffic inspectorate: checking a car. With its help, anyone, knowing the VIN code of the car of interest, can find out about the owners of the vehicle, being wanted and (or) imposing any restrictions on it, such as a pledge.

It is important to note that the traffic police is trying to make the service more functional and useful for its potential recipients, so the number of options has increased significantly since its inception.

Here are a few simple steps that you need to take to check a car by VIN code on the official website of the traffic police:

  1. Go to the site located at https://gibdd.rf/.
    Vehicle check by VIN code
    The start page of the traffic police website may differ in some details depending on the region in which the visitor is located
  2. Next, select the "services" tab, located at the top of the start page on the right. In the drop-down window, select the "check the car" button.
    Vehicle check by VIN code
    The “car check” service is ranked third from top to bottom after “fine check” and “driver check”
  3. Further, after clicking, a page opens in front of you, designed to enter the VIN of the car and carry out the check. Depending on the goals, the following types are available to you: checking the history of registrations, checking participation in an accident, checking for being wanted and for restrictions.
    Vehicle check by VIN code
    Be careful when entering data in the corresponding field, as any typo leads to incorrect display of data

It should be noted that along with the obvious advantages, this method also has a number of disadvantages, among which the main one is the incompleteness of the information provided. So, for example, you can get information only about those accidents that occurred after 2015 and were properly reflected in the system belonging to the traffic police.

In addition, it was not uncommon in my practice that there were cases when the system did not give any results at all for one or another VIN code, as if the car did not exist at all. In these cases, I recommend contacting the traffic police personally, as well as looking for information in alternative official sources.

Checking on some other resources

In addition to the official website of the traffic police, which accumulates all the main types of checks, in order to obtain the most accurate and detailed results, it is advisable to refer to individual specialized sites.

To check for restrictions in the form of a pledge, I recommend a public register of pledges of movable property, the responsibility for maintaining which is assigned by the Civil Code to the FNP (Federal Chamber of Notaries). Verification is done in a few simple steps:

  1. You must go to the website located at https://www.reestr-zalogov.ru/state/index.
    Vehicle check by VIN code
    In order to get to the start page of the register of pledges of movable property, you must either follow the link below, or from the official website of the Notary Chamber of the Russian Federation
  2. Next, from the large tabs at the top, select the far right “find in the registry”. Then, among the methods of verification, you should select "according to information about the subject of pledge." Finally, vehicles should be selected from the proposed types of movable property.
    Vehicle check by VIN code
    Having selected all the necessary tabs, you should enter the VIN code of the vehicle you are looking for and press the red button with the “find” arrow

Finally, one cannot ignore the numerous sites dedicated to the pre-sale check of used cars for legal purity. As a rule, by analogy with their American prototypes, these sites charge a small commission for their services. Among all the offers on the market, the avtocod.mos.ru service stands out favorably. Its only drawback is the fact that the check is carried out only for cars registered in Moscow and the Moscow region.

How to find out the VIN-code by the state number of the car

The original VIN-code during the use of the vehicle may become difficult to read due to dirt or mechanical damage. In addition, any driver knows the numbers of his own car, but the VIN code is much more difficult to remember. The website of the PCA (Russian Union of Auto Insurers) comes to the rescue in such cases. In order to get the information you need:

  1. Go to the corresponding page of the PCA website http://dkbm-web.autoins.ru/dkbm-web-1.0/policy.htm. Enter information about the state in the field. car number. This operation is necessary in order to find out the number of the OSAGO agreement, due to which we will subsequently reach the VIN.
    Vehicle check by VIN code
    Do not forget to enter the security code, without which you will not be able to complete the search
  2. After pressing the "search" button, a page with the OSAGO contract number will open in front of you.
    Vehicle check by VIN code
    Pay attention to the column "OSAGO contract number" in the table below
  3. Then, using the following link http://dkbm-web.autoins.ru/dkbm-web-...agovehicle.htm, enter the established data of the OSAGO agreement from the previous paragraph.
    Vehicle check by VIN code
    A prerequisite for obtaining information is to enter the date for which it is requested.
  4. On the page that opens, you will see a number of information about the insured vehicle, including the VIN.
    Vehicle check by VIN code
    In the section "information about the insured person" in the second line immediately below the state registration mark, you can see the required VIN

Video: how to find out the VIN code for free by car number

What information about the car can be found by the VIN-code

The VIN code, in view of its features described above, can become a source of a wide range of information about a vehicle.

Here is just a rough list of what you can draw from it:

Let's briefly discuss the most important of them.

Checking for constraints

The main free source of information for checking a car for restrictions is the official website of the traffic police. You have already been told about the features of using them above.

Among all the types of checks available on this site, the "restriction check" is listed below the "wanted check".

Checking fines

Traditionally, the verification of fines is carried out by providing the following set of data:

So, for example, the official traffic police service for checking fines will require them from you. In fairness, it should be said that they are really more often remembered by car owners than VIN.

Be that as it may, it is not difficult to find out other vehicle data from the VIN. So, through this logical operation, it will be possible to find out the number and amount of outstanding financial penalties from the traffic police. By selecting the "fine check" tab, you will be taken to the data entry page.

Arrest Check

It is also extremely important to check it for arrest before buying a used car. As a rule, bailiffs impose an appropriate restriction on debtors' cars. Therefore, to check the car for arrest, it is necessary not only to contact the already mentioned traffic police services, but also to the official website of the Federal Bailiff Service of the Russian Federation (Federal Bailiff Service of the Russian Federation).

In practice, specialists accompanying transactions with used cars often check the car seller using the FSSP databases. If in them the car owner has a lot of debts, significant in size, then it can be assumed that the car could become the subject of collateral for one or another obligation. To check on the FSSP website, you will need to find out the personal data of the car seller:

Checking for an accident, being stolen or wanted

Finally, the last in line, but not least, are the verification parameters: participation in an accident and being in a theft (wanted). I am sure that none of us would like to buy a “broken” car from our hands. To avoid this, many people hire specialists to inspect the cars they buy. In addition to this measure, I also recommend that you refer to the relevant section of the website of the state traffic inspectorate.

The same situation is with cars put on the federal wanted list. The acquisition of such a machine is fraught with many problems with law enforcement agencies and the waste of precious personal time, especially in our days.

In addition, if you wish, you can also turn to third-party commercial resources that provide similar services. In my personal experience, going to official free sources is rarely enough. The fact is that for a small fee, thanks to some services, you will get a unique opportunity to put together all the information available about the car, including from sources that are closed to ordinary citizens. Among such sites that I personally and clients have repeatedly checked, one can single out autocode and banks.ru (for checking for collateral in financial authorities).

Video: how to check vehicles before buying

Thus, the VIN code is one of the unique sources of information about the car. It allows a person who intends to buy a used car to learn a lot of interesting information from the "past life" of the subject of the transaction and make an informed and reasonable decision. In order not to become a victim of a fraudster and not to buy a car from your hands, which, for example, is stolen, do not be lazy and be sure to check it for legal purity using the numerous services that exist on the Internet.

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