Verify any chassis number, anywhere in the world, in seconds.
Enter the 17-character chassis number stamped under the bonnet, on the dashboard plate, or on the door jamb sticker. Get an instant chassis number check — make, model, year, engine specs, and assembly origin. No login, no payment, whether you're buying in Lagos, Nairobi, Accra, or Mumbai.
Dashboard plate
Through the windshield, driver's side base.
Door jamb sticker
Inside driver's door frame — must match dashboard.
Chassis stamp
Stamped on chassis rail under the bonnet.
Boot / under seat
Some models stamp under boot carpet or front seat.
A chassis number is the 17-character identifier stamped into every vehicle's frame at the point of manufacture. It's sometimes written as "chassis no" in classifieds and import paperwork across Africa and South Asia. It encodes the manufacturer, country of assembly, vehicle type, engine, model year, and a unique serial number — a permanent manufacturing fingerprint that never changes, no matter how many times the vehicle is resold, re-registered, or re-plated.
This is the detail that trips up a lot of buyers: a chassis number is not the same thing as a number plate or a registration number. A number plate is issued locally and can change every time a vehicle is re-registered in a new state or country. The chassis number is stamped at the factory, on the assembly line, and stays with that specific vehicle for life.
Yes. For any modern vehicle built to the 17-character standard adopted industry-wide since the early 1980s, the chassis number and the VIN are identical — the same code, read the same way, encoding the same information. There is no second, separate number hiding somewhere on the car.
The difference is purely regional terminology. "VIN" (Vehicle Identification Number) is the term used in North America and in most official documentation worldwide. "Chassis number" or "chassis no" is the everyday term used across Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, India, Bangladesh, and much of the Commonwealth world for the exact same code. If a mechanic in Lagos asks for your chassis number and a US import broker asks for your VIN, they're both asking to see the same 17 characters on the same plate.
Look in three places: stamped directly onto the chassis rail under the bonnet, printed on a small plate visible through the base of the windshield on the dashboard, and on a sticker inside the driver's door frame. A genuine, untampered vehicle will show the exact same 17 characters in all three spots.
If you're buying a used import — a common situation across Nigerian, Ghanaian, and Kenyan used-car markets — checking all three locations before you pay is one of the simplest ways to catch a swapped chassis plate. A mismatch between the dashboard plate and the actual stamped chassis rail is one of the clearest warning signs that a vehicle's true identity has been altered, often to hide accident or flood damage.
Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania & South Africa — a large share of the Tokunbo, "belgium," and Foreign Used vehicles sold across West and East African used-car markets began life as US, Canadian, or Mexican-market vehicles before being re-exported through auction houses. That means this checker returns full specification for a large slice of the vehicles actually being bought and sold locally. Vehicles built exclusively for European or Japanese domestic markets sit outside this specific database.
India, Bangladesh & South Asia — imported and re-exported North American-spec vehicles, along with grey-market pickups and SUVs, decode the same way here. Locally-built vehicles registered under regional systems (RTO records in India, for instance) are better verified through the relevant national registry alongside this free spec check.
This isn't a single-brand lookup. A Toyota chassis number check works exactly the same way as a Ford, Honda, Nissan, Chevrolet, or Jeep chassis number check — the tool reads directly from the shared NHTSA manufacturer database and pulls the correct schema automatically based on the code itself. Toyota is the single most commonly searched brand for this kind of check, reflecting how dominant Toyota and Lexus models are in the used-import markets this tool serves.
These are two different numbers stamped in two different places. The chassis number identifies the whole vehicle and is what this tool decodes. The engine number is stamped separately on the engine block itself and identifies only that specific engine unit — it isn't decoded by this tool, and it isn't interchangeable with the chassis number. A car that's had an engine swap can legitimately show a chassis number and engine number that don't match each other; always cross-check both against the vehicle's registration papers, not just one or the other.
Customs duty on used vehicles is typically calculated using the vehicle's age and engine size — both of which the chassis number confirms independently of whatever the seller or shipping paperwork claims. Decoding the chassis number before you buy, or before you clear a vehicle through port, gives you the real figures to plug into an import duty calculator or a registration fee calculator, instead of budgeting around a number that turns out to be wrong at the port.
A 17-character code stamped into a vehicle's frame at the factory, identifying its exact make, model, year, engine, and assembly plant. It's a permanent manufacturing identifier, not a locally-issued registration number.
Yes — same code, same 17 characters, same data. "VIN" is the North American term; "chassis number" is the more common term across Africa, South Asia, and much of the Commonwealth for the identical identifier.
Enter the 17-character chassis number above and click Decode. This tool queries the public NHTSA database and returns make, model, year, engine, and origin — free, no login required.
Three places: stamped on the chassis rail under the bonnet, on the dashboard plate visible through the windshield, and on a sticker in the driver's door jamb. All three must match.
Yes — Toyota decodes the same way as every other major brand through the shared NHTSA database, along with Ford, Honda, Nissan, Chevrolet, and more.
Make, model, trim, year, engine size, cylinder count, fuel type, body class, drive type, and assembly plant. It does not show accident history or ownership — that needs a separate paid history report.
The 10th character of the 17-digit chassis number is a standardised code for the model year. This tool decodes it automatically and shows the year alongside the rest of the specification.
No — they query the identical 17-character code and return identical data. The difference is only in which term you happen to search.
Yes, for vehicles originally built for the US, Canadian, or Mexican market — which describes a large share of the Tokunbo and Foreign Used vehicles sold across West and East Africa.
Usually means the vehicle was built for a market outside the NHTSA database (European, UK, or region-exclusive). The model year still decodes from the chassis number's structure regardless.
No. The engine number is stamped separately on the engine block and identifies only that engine. The chassis number identifies the whole vehicle. They can legitimately differ after an engine swap.
Check that the number on the chassis rail, dashboard plate, and door jamb sticker all match exactly. Position 9 is a mathematical check digit — a tampered or mistyped number usually fails this check, which this tool validates automatically.