WMI Codes: Reading the First Three Characters of a VIN

A WMI is a three-character code assigned to a vehicle manufacturer so that its VINs can never collide with another maker's. The international standard is ISO 3780, which defines the WMI as the first section of the VIN described in ISO 3779 and applies it to motor vehicles, trailers, motorcycles and mopeds.

Who hands out the codes depends on where the manufacturer is based. In the U.S., NHTSA has contracted SAE International to coordinate WMI assignments, free of charge (49 CFR 565.16). In the EU, the code is assigned by the competent authority of the country where the manufacturer has its principal place of business, acting with the international body named in ISO 3780 (Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/535). Under U.S. rules, the WMI identifies both the manufacturer and the type of vehicle, which is why one company often holds several codes.

The first character identifies a geographic region. The table follows the WMI country code chart published on ISO's standards maintenance portal, revised on April 13, 2021, cross-checked against the allocation table in Wikipedia's VIN article. Older reference tables may show different allocations for some blocks.

Within each region, ranges of second characters are allocated to individual countries. These are the ranges for major vehicle-producing countries on which the ISO chart and Wikipedia's table agree. A range such as SA–SM includes every permitted letter in between, skipping I, O and Q.

Every code below was checked with NHTSA's vPIC DecodeWMI service on September 25, 2026. The manufacturer column shows the name exactly as vPIC records it, and the makes column lists the brands vPIC associates with the code. Because vPIC holds data for vehicles sold in the U.S., codes used only in other markets are not included.

We verified further codes the same way, including 1G4 (Buick passenger cars), WME (smart), SCA (Rolls-Royce), SCF (Aston Martin), ZHW (Lamborghini), ZAM (Maserati), YS3 (Saab), WA1 (Audi multipurpose vehicles) and WP1 (Porsche multipurpose vehicles). Brand-specific details are on each brand page, for example Ford, Honda, Toyota, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen, or browse all brands.

A 9 in position 3 marks a small manufacturer. Such makers don't get a unique three-character code; instead, positions 1–3 plus positions 12–14 form a six-character identifier, and only positions 15–17 are left for the serial number. U.S. rules state that a 9 in the third position always means a six-character manufacturer identifier is present (49 CFR 565.15).

Replica-vehicle manufacturers in the U.S., which may build no more than 325 vehicles a year, use the same six-character format. NHTSA's vPIC can look up both forms: its DecodeWMI service accepts either three characters or six characters taken from positions 1–3 and 12–14.

The quickest route is to enter the full VIN in our VIN decoder, which reports the manufacturer and region along with everything else. To look up the code on its own, NHTSA offers two free public tools built on the same data.

1. vPIC DecodeWMI. Send a three-character WMI, or a six-character one for small manufacturers, and vPIC returns the manufacturer name, the makes associated with the code, the vehicle type and the dates of its record. This is how we checked every code in the table above.
2. vPIC Manufacturer Information Database. Search by manufacturer to see the WMIs SAE has assigned to it and that vPIC references, together with the company's address and the vehicle types it makes.
3. vPIC GetWMIsForManufacturer. Returns every WMI linked to a manufacturer name, with its country and vehicle type; a search for Honda returned 45 codes on September 25, 2026. Useful for developers building their own lookup tables.

If none of these knows the code, the WMI probably belongs to a manufacturer that doesn't sell in the U.S. The region and country still come from the ISO allocation above, but you will need the manufacturer, a national authority or a market-specific reference to name the company.

Because the code belongs to the manufacturing company that registered it, not to the brand. In North America that is usually the company that built the vehicle, so the country code follows the factory: 3VW is Volkswagen de Mexico, 2HG is Honda of Canada Mfg., 4T1 is Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, and 5UX is registered to BMW's North American manufacturing company. In the EU, the code is assigned by the country where the manufacturer has its principal place of business, so it can reflect the headquarters rather than the assembly plant.

• One code, several brands. vPIC lists seven makes under 1C4, from Dodge to Lancia, and both Toyota and Subaru under JF1. The WMI tells you the manufacturer; positions 4–8 tell you the model.
• Several codes, one brand. Ford uses 1FA, 1FM and 1FT for cars, multipurpose vehicles and trucks, while 2FM and 3FA are registered to Ford's Canadian and Mexican companies.
• Codes missing from U.S. data. On September 25, 2026, vPIC returned no record for TMB, VSS, UU1 or VF7, which Wikipedia's WMI list attributes to Škoda, SEAT, Dacia and Citroën. That is a gap in U.S. data, not a sign the VIN is fake. See our European VIN guide.