Pick a manufacturer for its VIN prefix table, assembly plants and brand-specific decoding notes — or just paste any VIN into the box above and decode it directly.
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Why manufacturer matters when decoding a VIN
The first three characters of a VIN — the world manufacturer identifier, or WMI — are assigned by SAE in the US and by national authorities elsewhere. They're issued to a manufacturer, not to a plant or a brand, which produces some counterintuitive results. A Jeep Renegade carries an Italian VIN because it's built by Stellantis in Melfi. A MINI carries a German WMI despite being built in Oxford. A BMW X5 carries a US WMI because Spartanburg, South Carolina builds it for the world.
That's why the manufacturer pages here list the actual prefixes in use rather than assuming brand equals country. If a decode returns a manufacturer name you didn't expect, the WMI is usually the explanation.
The WMI directory lists every code we cover with its manufacturer and country.