Fox-body Mustangs. Air-cooled 911s. R34 Skylines under the 25-year rule. Every enthusiast-grade car built from 1981 onward carries a 17-character VIN — and every one of them has a story you can verify before the deposit clears. Free specification lookup. No signup.
The 17-character VIN mandated for the 1981 model year is the single richest identifier a modern-classic buyer has. Position 3 names the manufacturer, positions 4–8 encode body, engine, and restraint system, position 10 gives the model year, and position 11 identifies the assembly plant. A stock decoder returns the surface — a proper history report layers ownership, title, and auction records on top so you know what the car has done since it left the line.
Fox-body vs SN-95, 5.0 pushrod vs 4.6 modular, single-piston vs dual-piston brakes. The 17-character VIN nails the exact chassis and drivetrain the seller has — badge and paint aren't proof.
A US-market Skyline is not the same as a Japanese-market R33 imported after the 25-year rule. VINs from those cars decode against the manufacturer's world identifier, not the US chassis code — worth confirming before you wire a deposit.
80s and 90s performance cars are cheap enough to be totaled and cheap enough to rebuild. A history report catches the salvage brand and the auction photos that sometimes tell a longer story than the seller does.
A 1994 Supra with a single-turbo swap or a 2000 M3 with a supercharger looks great on the ad but rarely comes with matching-numbers paperwork. The VIN check tells you what left the factory; the seller has to prove the rest.
The 17-character VIN carries more than most people realize. Read position by position, it names the factory that built the car, the year, the engine family, the transmission, and the trim package. Here's what our check pulls out for you in seconds:
Decoded straight from position 4–8 of the 17-char VIN — the same fields NHTSA uses.
Fox-body 5.0 vs 302 HO, LT1 vs LT4, 2JZ-GTE vs 2JZ-GE — read from the code, not the badge.
Turbo vs supercharged vs NA, factory fuel type, and the emissions family the car was homologated under.
Manual vs automatic, RWD vs AWD vs FWD, plus axle ratio when the code carries it.
Coupe, convertible, targa, wagon, or hatch — plus wheelbase, curb weight, and cargo dimensions.
Cobra R vs GT, IROC-Z vs Z28, M3 vs 328i, GT3 vs Carrera — the trim ladder confirmed from the VIN.
The VIN is read in stages — the world manufacturer identifier first, then the vehicle descriptor, then the check digit and sequence. Once the vehicle is decoded, the history stack is queried against every NMVTIS-participating state and the major auction archives.
The free lookup confirms what the car is. The full report confirms what has happened to it. Assembled from NMVTIS-participating state feeds, insurance data, auction archives, and police theft indexes, delivered as a signed PDF you can hand to any of those parties without further explanation.
Fox-body Mustang GT, C4 Corvette, BMW E30 M3, Porsche 944 Turbo, Buick GNX, third-gen Camaro IROC-Z
Supra Mk4, RX-7 FD, NSX, Skyline R33/R34, E36 M3, 993 Turbo, Viper GTS, SN-95 Cobra R
S197 Mustang GT500, C6 Z06, 350Z, E46 M3, EVO IX, WRX STI, RX-8, 997 GT3, Ferrari 360 & 430
Manual E92 M3, LFA, 991 GT3, Boss 302, Grand National editions, last naturally-aspirated V8s
From Detroit's Fox-body and Grand National era through the Stuttgart and Maranello weekend cars to the JDM legends that reached the US after their 25-year window opened. If the car has a 17-character VIN, we speak it.
Confirm the seller's story before you wire a deposit. A five-second VIN check catches a re-badged base model, a swapped engine, or a title brand long before the truck arrives at your driveway.
Match every part back to the factory build — original engine, transmission, drivetrain, and paint code pulled from the VIN for that year and make.
Ship a verified spec sheet with every lot so bidders know what they're paying for. Reduces post-sale disputes and speeds title transfer.
Agreed-value policies for 80s and 90s enthusiast cars need documentation. A signed history report is the reference collectors and adjusters both accept.
Track your garage — save VIN checks, spot title-history gaps, and keep the paper trail tight so provenance stays intact through the next transfer.
Model-specific registries use the VIN check as the first pass on every submission — a fast way to sort matching-numbers cars from clones without inspecting them in person.
Any collectible or enthusiast-grade vehicle built from 1981 model year onward — when the 17-character VIN became mandatory. That covers Fox-body Mustangs, C4/C5/C6 Corvettes, E30/E36/E46 M3s, JDM 90s legends, air-cooled 911s from 964 onward, 80s and 90s exotics, and the 2000s tuner era. Anything with a 17-char VIN checks through our standard pipeline.
Not on this workflow. Pre-1981 cars used manufacturer-specific 5- to 14-character formats that never joined the NMVTIS feed, so a modern history report simply has nothing to return. If your car is 1981 or newer, its 17-character VIN checks fully; if it's older, the paperwork you already have is the authoritative record.
From the 1981 model year US federal law requires the VIN to be visible through the windshield on the driver side. On restored classics you'll still cross-check with the door tag, the engine bay firewall, and the certification label on the driver's door jamb — a mismatch is one of the biggest red flags on a matching-numbers car.
Year, make, model, body style, engine family and displacement, transmission type, drivetrain, factory paint code where recorded, and the trim / option packages the car left the factory with. It's enough to sanity-check any listing against what the seller claims before you drive out for an inspection.
Original build specifications, ownership chain, title brands, lien and loan records, accident history where recorded, mileage snapshots, theft flags, and sales / auction history — including Bring a Trailer, Mecum, and Barrett-Jackson archive lots when the VIN matches. Delivered as a signed PDF.
Yes — Supra Mk4, RX-7 FD, NSX, Skyline R33/R34, EVO, WRX STI, air-cooled and water-cooled 911s, E30 through E46 M3s, W124/W126 Mercedes, Alfa Romeo 155/164/GTV, and more. As long as the car has a 17-character VIN and reached the US market (federally imported or 25-year rule) the report runs.
The specification lookup is free with no signup. You only pay if you want the full history report or build sheet as a PDF you can save, print, and share with a buyer, insurer, or auction house.
Yes. The VIN confirms the original engine, transmission, drivetrain, paint code, and trim package — the reference points a restorer or judge needs. Resto-mod buyers use the same report to confirm what left the factory before pricing in the modifications.
Both show up in the title-brand section of the report. Salvage, rebuilt, junk, flood, lemon-law, and manufacturer buyback are pulled from every NMVTIS-participating state, so a title washed across two DMVs still surfaces in the check.
Yes — Fox-body Mustang GT/Cobra, SN-95 Cobra R, third and fourth-gen Camaro Z28/SS/IROC-Z, Trans Am WS6, Grand National, GNX, Buick Regal T-Type, Impala SS, Marauder, and their contemporaries all decode through the 17-character workflow.
Free specification lookup. Full history report available on demand. Every enthusiast marque from 1981 through today.
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