Researchinga VIN #

[Dave Moody]

I’m looking to research the vin# on a car before I buy it. Any suggestions on sites to use for this ?

[Trulyvintage]

It would help if you share the year - make model of the vehicle ?

 

 

Jim

[Matt Harwood]

Nothing before 1981 will show up on sites like CarFax or AutoCheck. You could just try punching the VIN into Google and see what shows up.

[CarlLaFong]

What do you hope to accomplish with this search?. VIN searches are generally a fools errand.

 

[8E45E]

Here is an example:  http://www.xkdata.com/cars/

 

Craig

[Str8-8-Dave]

If you are interested in tracing ownership of a vehicle this won't help but there is a DOJ title information database, the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS) that works from a VIN.  When I bought my 31 Buick and went to transfer the title the MI Sec. of State's office used this database to verify the Illinois title I presented before issuing a Michigan title.  This database should be useful in validating a title.

 

Home | VehicleHistory (ojp.gov)

Edited November 24, 2021 by Str8-8-Dave (see edit history)

[George Smolinski]

21 minutes ago, Str8-8-Dave said:

If you are interested in tracing ownership of a vehicle this won't help but there is a DOJ title information database, the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS) that works from a VIN.  When I bought my 31 Buick and went to transfer the title the MI Sec. of State's office used this database to verify the Illinois title I presented before issuing a Michigan title.  This database should be useful in validating a title.

 

Home | VehicleHistory (ojp.gov)

Is this database accessible to the general public?

[JCHansen1]

If nothing else, google, bing and yahoo can sometimes be your friend. Run the number through all three, every once in a while something will turn up on one that the others miss. In my experience maybe half the time at best something useful will appear. Case in point, not long ago I had a guy in CA ask me to look at an early '60s Starfire here in MI. He was getting comfortable with photos and phone convos with the seller, who gave him a long cushy story about how he recently inherited the car from his grandpa, it had been in his family since the '60s, and was "struggling" with selling it, but needed to part with it for whatever nonsense reason. A 30 second google search told the real story, bonehead bought it at Auburn about 6 weeks prior, and was some flipper extraordinaire. A google search of his phone number also showed he owned some seedy "tote the note" car lot in the thumb, and I found several other old ads from private classic car flips he had done out of his home. Told the client to take a hard pass and keep his $25k for an honest seller who actually knows something about the car he was selling. 

 

Another recent doosey was a seller who paid $50k at auction for a late 60's Chevelle SS and listed it a few weeks later, largely unaltered save for a real nice detail, for $100k. After I found my bottle of Excedrin, I asked my client if the car came with a trunk full of cash... good luck... 

[Str8-8-Dave]

16 hours ago, George Smolinski said:

Is this database accessible to the general public?

The database is divided into 2 sections, a commercial section and a consumer section.  The link I sent has a list of approved websites where the consumer database can be accessed.

[JACK M]

23 hours ago, CarlLaFong said:

VIN searches are generally a fools errand.

I dont know about that.

My brother was in the market for a late model Lincoln and found one that was priced right and looked good.

He had the VIN and I suggested that he Google it.

A pic showed up that showed a car that should have been totaled. Same car, PASS !!!