It depends on what information you're looking for. If you're interested to learn about where your vehicle was made and entertaining trivia, try a site such as Decode the VIN. If you're shopping for a used car and want to know more about its history before buying, we recommend running a Carfax report. The reports can reveal if the motor vehicle you're considering has been reported stolen or if it has a salvage title.

What is a VIN (Vehicle Identification Number)? A vehicle identification number is a unique cryptogram for identifying a specific automobile. Basically, it is like a vehicle's fingerprint since no two vehicles can share the same vehicle identification number. Mercedes VIN decoder will check your Mercedes VIN and show you full vehicle specification Free Mercedes-Benz VIN Decoder Type 17 digits of your vehicles identification number.

We entered the VIN of a few vehicles that were once in the Edmunds long-term test fleet, and the search came up with some interesting information.

The first car VIN was the 2013 Scion FR-S. There was one item that stood out: The VIN decoder shows the manufacturer is Subaru, not Scion (now reabsorbed back into Toyota), but that's not an error. The Scion FR-S (now called the Toyota 86) and its twin, the Subaru BRZ, were the products of a joint venture between Subaru and Toyota. Both are manufactured at Subaru's plant in Japan.

When we did a search for the VIN of another former test vehicle, a 2011 Chevrolet Volt, there was a hidden bit of trivia in the fuel type. It erroneously says that the Volt can run on E85 ethanol in addition to gasoline.

Serial Number Lookup

General Motors originally intended to launch the Volt with a flex-fuel variant, but the emissions package was not ready for the car's introduction, according to the automaker. The E85 compatibility apparently was incorporated into the VIN data before GM decided a flex-fuel version wouldn't be ready in time for 2011. No flex-fuel version of the Volt ever surfaced.

Vin Serial Number Decoding Code

The 2012 Fiat 500 is a reminder of just how globalized automakers have become. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is an Italian-American multinational carmaker that manufactured the 500 at Chrysler's plant in Toluca, Mexico.

Notice that the 10th character in the VIN is 'C.' The letter represents the 2012 model year, but it could also mean 1982. Because the year is represented by one character (letter or number) and the VIN can only contain 17 characters, the code for a car's year has to be recycled every 30 years. So while one letter can represent more than one year, it should be pretty obvious whether you've got a 1982 or a 2012 — or 2042, for that matter.

Finally, here's a bit of vehicle history on a 2011 Ford Mustang GT. Notice that the manufacturer isn't listed as 'Ford Motor Co.' The AutoAlliance International Inc. was a joint venture between Ford and Mazda that produced the Mustang and the Mazda 6 for a while at a plant in Flat Rock, Michigan. Newer Mustangs list Ford as the automaker.