Where to Find the VIN on Your Car (Every Location)
The VIN is repeated in several places on every car — partly for identification and partly to make tampering obvious. If one location has been altered or removed, the others give the game away. Here's everywhere to look.
On the car
- Windscreen, driver's side. Look at the lower corner of the dashboard where it meets the glass, from outside the car. This is the most visible location and the first place to check.
- Driver's door jamb. Open the driver's door and look at the B-pillar or the edge of the door itself. There's usually a manufacturer sticker showing the VIN alongside tyre pressures and weights.
- Engine bay. The VIN is often stamped on the firewall, strut tower or a metal plate near the engine.
- Under the bonnet or boot floor. Some makers stamp it into the chassis under the carpet in the boot, or on the floor by the front passenger seat.
The VINs in different locations should match exactly. If they don't — or a plate looks tampered with, re-riveted or freshly painted — walk away and consider reporting it.
On the paperwork
- Vehicle registration document (logbook / V5C / title).
- Insurance certificate and policy documents.
- Service history and the owner's manual.
- The purchase contract or invoice.
Can't find the VIN?
If the windscreen plate is obscured, try the door jamb sticker first — it's the easiest to read. Older or heavily modified vehicles may only show the stamped chassis number. If you genuinely can't locate a VIN anywhere, treat that as a serious warning sign about the car's provenance.
Once you've found it
Copy the 17 characters carefully — remember a VIN never contains I, O or Q — and run a free VIN check. Then read our guide on how to check a VIN to make sense of the report.
Ready to check a VIN?
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