Buying a used car, truck, or motorcycle is an exciting event. Maybe it is the vintage ride you've been scrounging around for years. Or it might be your first car! But there is always a lingering risk that the car is a lemon or has hidden damage history.

So, what can you do to ensure you aren't getting into a disaster? Of course, the easiest way to make sure your prospective vehicle has a clean title and history are to request a VIN check. But what makes the VIN so important? And what exactly is the process that assigns accident history to a vehicle's VIN? We're going to find these answers and even more. 

What’s in a VIN Number?

For starters, VIN stands for Vehicle Identification Number, meaning the phrase “VIN number” is redundant. What that says is “Vehicle Identification Number number,” which is like saying “Random Access Memory memory” or “Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus apparatus.” It’s VIN. Just VIN.

VINs are unique vehicle identification numbers, hence the acronym. The VIN is an international standard today, although it has been a work in progress for many years. As we currently know, the VIN was not finalized until the 1987 model year. 

However, serializing vehicles is traced back to 1954, at least in the United States. But in those early years, there was no standardized process, no uniformity. Instead, VINs were configured depending on each manufacturer. 

It would be 27 years before the present 17-digit length would be codified and standardized. This is the Federal Motor Vehicle Theft Prevention Standard, a section of the Federal Code. According to the code, "The purpose of this standard is to reduce the incidence of motor vehicle thefts by facilitating the tracing and recovery of parts from stolen vehicles."

The VIN is posted on a minimum of twelve or fourteen locations on each vehicle (depending on category and type). The parts where VINs are located are considered the 'major component parts to the construction of the vehicle.'

There was a pandemic of chop shops in the 1970s and 1980s run by organized crime (Mafia). Stolen cars are big business, and it has nothing to do with reselling the car. Reselling a stolen car is a no-go, but selling the parts is good business. Without a unified standard for the VIN, federal law enforcement could not easily keep tabs on what vehicle was produced by who and when let alone its parts. Standardized VINs marked all over every car have been the most effective measure of tracking down stolen vehicles and their parts.

How Can a Regular Person Read a VIN?

The exact reasons VINs were instituted in the first place still hold for private buyers today. The VIN must be noticeable under the windshield so anyone can read it and use it to learn more about the vehicle. Buyer familiars with the other mandated locations can quickly determine if the car is all original or if significant repairs have been made. So can anyone who understands the recipe for building a VIN from scratch.

A modern VIN comprises seventeen total digits in length, consisting of numbers and letters. 

• The first section consists of three characters, occupying positions one through three. These are the manufacturer identifier and the general vehicle type. 

• The Vehicle Description Section is the second section, positions four through eight. This second section is the model, GVWR, and engine code. 

• Section three is the check digit and is a single-digit position. 

• The fourth and final section is the Vehicle Identification Section, which occupies positions ten through seventeen. These are year, manufacturing/assembly plant, and a sequential number of the vehicle’s production on the line.

Is There Such a Thing as a Free VIN Check?

If you're wondering if you can get a free VIN check, you get what you pay for. So I tried out the top hits on Google to see if I could find any helpful information on my problem-child Toyota Pickup. Here is what I found: 

Background: My truck is a 1991 Toyota Pickup (pre-dates the Tacoma line), two-wheel drive, standard bed. It has a 22RE engine and a five-speed manual transmission. 

• VIN Check Pro: According to their excerpt on Google, this service offers a free VIN check and vehicle history. I took it at face value and plugged in my VIN number. Receipts attached. The ‘Free’ part of the check tells you that it is a 1991 Toyota Pickup with a 2.4L engine. 

• Vehicle History is another website in the Top 5 search results on Google for 'free VIN check,' so I plugged in my VIN. Overall, the results were about as useful as VIN Check Pro, which is marginally useful.

I will not go further about the supposedly 'free VIN checks.' The only thing that you will get for free is confirmation about the basic specifications of the vehicle. I guess this is useful if:

• You suspect that significant modifications have been done, i.e., the engine in the vehicle does not match the specs in the VIN

• You suspect the car’s VIN has been tampered with or swapped with another vehicle

• You want to match the VIN on the title with the car in question but cannot see the car in person

There's no such thing as a free lunch. Ads for 'free VIN checks' are nothing more than a ploy to pull you in; there's nothing free. They give you a free sample. 

Many more informative options are available in VIN Checks and Vehicle History Reports. Thankfully, both options are inexpensive, considering how much time and trouble they can save you.

Why You Need a VIN Lookup

A VIN Check, or VIN Lookup, will give you far more details than a standard free VIN check. Why do you need a VIN lookup or VIN check? How do you know you need a VIN lookup or VIN check?

Example #1 is a vehicle that appears to be in solid condition, but it turns out to have been flooded or otherwise given a salvage title. Instead of figuring out what to do with this vehicle once you own it, a VIN check will uncover problems with the title that is not immediately or easily identifiable. And yes, there are ways that titles can be “washed” to show a clean title when that isn’t the case.

What Is a VIN Search Looking For?

There are several main areas that a VIN check or VIN search looks for once it has been queued up, and it will provide you with a thorough report of all title activity on the vehicle. I rang up a VIN check for my Toyota to see what was included in the Dirt Legal VIN check that we offer on our site.

Vehicle Specifications

I was provided with a detailed list of technical specs provided by the manufacturer when the vehicle was serialized and produced. That isn’t dissimilar from the ‘free VIN check’ sites earlier, but that was just the beginning.

Title Records

If you are curious about where your car or truck came from, you can see all state title records in this block. In addition, the Title Records block is an essential clue if the seller's stories aren't adding up. 

“You said that you’re the original owner? Then why are there five title transactions in three states?”

Junk / Salvage / Insurance Records

The information is updated when the vehicle is damaged, and the DMV will place a category against the VIN. The physical title may be clean, but the VIN has been flagged, and this will uncover that.

Theft Records

Theft records are one of the more prominent sections of the VIN check and an important one. If the vehicle is currently reported as stolen, it will go here. But, again, no matter the seller's story, get away from that toxic relationship immediately. 

Lien / Impound / Export Records

The lien records section is critical to me because the county DMV keeps stonewalling me about releasing a copy of the title, stating there is a lien on it. That was proven to be a lie. 

Again, if this section does not jive with what the seller is telling you, it might be a good idea to move on. However, trying to title a car with a lien against the title can be an absolute nightmare, so go into negotiations armed with the facts.

Accident Records

If the vehicle has been in a recorded accident, the information will be listed here. You need this service to know what happened throughout the vehicle's history. In addition, it illuminates whether the seller is forthcoming in all issues. It’s important to note that some accidents are not reported to anyone and might not result in this report.

Problem Checks 

The problem check portion is too long to break down here. It is a highly comprehensive list of sixty-four problem areas that could be an issue for you and your car title. Among them, and these are just a few, are:

• Remanufactured

• Gray market

• Replica

• Totaled

Is a VIN Check the Same as a License Plate Lookup?

A misconception that needs clearing up is that a VIN check is the same as a license plate lookup. It is not, nor is it all that close. 

In the United States, license plates do not follow the vehicle, especially if it crosses state lines. However, some states do keep tags with the individual car (Texas does), although this is nullified if it crosses state lines or if the tag is a custom tag. 

In fact, in my home state of Kansas, you can keep the tag and transfer it to another car when you sell a car. So, tracing a vehicle's lineage through a license plate is almost impossible. 

A VIN is where all pertinent information about a vehicle is maintained; all things are reported against the VIN, not against the license plate. The VIN never changes and is permanently affixed to the vehicle. License plates are much more temporary. 

Are There Any Exclusions to Using VINs?

There are a few exclusions to the VIN system, although they represent a small minority of vehicles on the road. For the most part, the vehicles that are not required to have a VIN are small-batch vehicles built by small or custom manufacturers. 

Federal Code dictates that companies building 5,000 or fewer units for sale in the U.S. annually are excluded from the VIN requirement. Remember, the VIN was standardized to fight organized crime stealing vast quantities of cars; the government built the whole idea around the masses, not the unique. 

There are a handful of other exclusions, but they are not all that important. The chances are high that any car besides a handful of collectibles will have a VIN attached. Besides, collector cars (i.e., those "small batch" cars built in numbers under 5,000 annually) are heavily scrutinized and valued by professionals. 

The VIN will be your best friend for the buyers and sellers of daily drivers, those who aren't hanging out at Bonhams or Barrett-Jackson auction houses. You are looking for a reliable car or truck to get to school or work and haul the kids to Sunday school and baseball games.

Dirt Legal’s VIN Check

Our VIN check is not free. But, of course, neither are the others when you get down to it. They promise a lot and deliver practically nothing. At Dirt Legal, we pride ourselves on delivering the goods. Our VIN check is your first line of defense when you find a car you're interested in. Take it from me; it only takes a few minutes of your time. The check paints a much clearer picture of the vehicle and gives you bargaining chips to negotiate with.

But more critical than bargaining chips is peace of mind. Instead of buying that family SUV that looked great, you might have avoided a disaster when you saw it had a salvage title in its history. Instead of buying a cheap commuter car for work, you might have avoided dealing with what was a stolen car. You just never know if you only look skin deep.

Whatever the situation is, a VIN check is the cheapest insurance you can get in the car buying process; if it comes back clean, great! You won't miss those few dollars anyway. On the other hand, if it comes back with red flags, you just saved yourself a headache at a minimum. So, if you are in the market for a vehicle, jot down the VIN and plug it into our VIN check program. You will get the results quickly (mine took six minutes) to move forward with the process or save yourself a hassle!