Home How To Find your Toyota VIN (Vehicle Identification Number)

Find your Toyota VIN (Vehicle Identification Number)

By Toyota Blog
Vehicle Identification Number

The Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) is your Toyota’s legal identifier, and is applied to your car during production.

Each VIN is unique, and is usually a 17-character code made up of letters and numbers, and reveals important details about your vehicle. As well as containing information on the time and place of your car’s creation, it also contains information about its specification and design.

First introduced in 1954, Vehicle Identification Numbers are an important component in determining the history and identity of a vehicle, particularly when combined with the car’s DVLA licence plate and V5 or V5C documents.

While licence plates can be altered, the car’s VIN remains unchanged, and therefore is the primary identification number for your Toyota.

How to locate your Vehicle Identification Number

In most modern Toyota cars, you’ll find a visible Vehicle Identification Number through a special cut-out at the bottom of the windscreen. Additional VINs are printed on tamper-proof stickers located just inside the shut line of the front nearside door. Earlier models may have a metal plate instead of a sticker.

The VIN is repeated on the vehicle’s chassis, stamped into the metal floor of the car under the right-hand (driver’s side) front seat. It’s usually visible through a small flap, deliberately cut into the vehicle’s carpet.

Read more How to connect your phone to your car

Of course, there are some important exceptions to the rule…

These include the four-door Hilux pick-up – in which the tamper-proof sticker is mounted just inside the nearside rear door, and the five-door Aygo – in which it is applied to the body just inside the offside rear door shut.

Decoding your Vehicle Identification Number

Although there are exceptions to the rule, the first three digits of the Vehicle Identification Number usually refer to the country of manufacture, the vehicle maker and the vehicle type.

For example, if you check the first letter of the code, ‘J’ references Japan, ‘S’ references England, while ‘V’ identifies France. Turkey gets an ‘N’, while Thailand and South Africa (where some of our Hilux vehicles are produced) get an ‘M’ and ‘A’ respectively.

The second letter is usually ‘T’, which describes Toyota, the third describes which group of cars (or sometimes which chassis type) the vehicle sits on.

The next six numbers reference the car’s body style, engine and gearbox, while the remaining eight is a combination unique to the car, listing the year the car was made, the factory it was produced in and where it came in the production process.

For more on your VIN, please contact your nearest dealer, or visit toyota.co.uk/mytoyota

411 comments

  1. Hello, I’ve Toyota Auris hybrid sport touring 1.8”. Geg nmbr is Kp15vhk “. Where I can find that code ? I need that code for Toyota app

    Reply

    1. Hi,

      In most modern Toyota cars, you’ll find a visible VIN through a special cut-out at the bottom of the windscreen. Additional VINs are printed on tamper-proof stickers located just inside the shut line of the front nearside door. Earlier models may have a metal plate instead of a sticker.

      The VIN is repeated on the vehicle’s chassis, stamped into the metal floor of the car under the right-hand (driver’s side) front seat. It’s usually visible through a small flap, deliberately cut into the vehicle’s carpet.

      You could also check the V5 document.

      If you are unable to locate it, you should contact your nearest Toyota, provide proof of ownership and they will be able to provide the VIN.

      Thanks

      Reply

    2. Hello

      We have a VIN for our new Yaris but the value in position 10 is 0 (zero). We were expecting to find the year of manufacture encoded in position 10. How else can we establish the exact year of manufacture of our car?

      Thanks

      Reply

      1. Hi Mia,
        Thanks for getting in touch.
        Please contact Toyota in your region for further assistance.
        Thanks.

    1. Hi Debbie,
      Thanks for getting in touch.
      The odometer on a 2019 RAV4 can be found at the bottom right of the meter display behind the steering wheel.
      Thanks.

      Reply

  3. This isn’t user friendly at all.When I try to find service history it asks me to enter the version code for my car . The the app asks “Where can I find my katashiki number?” The katashiki number hasnt been mentioned before and just cinfuses the issue. Are we talking about the version number, the version code or the katashiki number. If they all mean the same thing why not just use one term so that it is quite straightforward to enter the required details.
    It says enter the 6 digit version code- as far as I know a 6 digit code means a code with 6 numbers, not a code with 6 characters but I am guessing this is what you mean. However when I enter the 6-digit version code or what I believe must be this 6-digit version code (it is all uppercase letters and no digits at all) I receive an error
    message:
    Please make sure you have filled in the correct data requested in a verification form. So after 20 minutes of going round in circles I got precisely nowhere. This is very disappointing and far below the standard size expect from Toyota

    Reply

    2. The code to use is on the V5 and is the first part of the code shown for the Version, which is under the code for the Variant, which is under the code for Type (D.2).

      Reply

  4. My app says enter a katashiki ref…which is found on the V5. This means version number. Its request on the app is for a 6 digit code..my version number is 13 long.

    Is this some kind of in house secret number?

    Reply

    1. Hi Rosemary,
      Thanks for your comment.
      The VIN can usually be found in the places detailed in the blog post above, these being through a special cut-out at the bottom of the windscreen, and on a tamper-proof sticker located inside the shit line of the front nearside door. Earlier models may have a metal plate instead of a sticker.
      The VIN is repeated on the vehicle’s chassis, stamped into the metal floor of the car under the right-hand front seat and visible through a small flap, deliberately cut into the vehicle’s carpet.
      If you are still unable to find the VIN, please contact your nearest Toyota Centre and provide proof of ownership. They will then be able to provide you with your VIN.
      Thanks.

      Reply

  6. Hi, I have a 1980 Toyota Land Cruiser and only have a frame number which is HJ47009024. I am trying to identify which year the vehicle was manufactured in. Do you know of any way I can do this from this number?

    Thankyou.

    Reply

    1. Hi Chris,

      We need a UK reg or a UK VIN to check a vehicle’s details. If you find either of those, we’d be happy to check.

      Thanks

      Reply

      1. Thanks for replying, the number I gave is the VIN number as shown on the V5 and the only number stamped on the vehicle. The reg is LVP63W.

      2. This number and the reg you supplied are not recognised by our system, sorry. This is probably because the vehicle is imported. We can’t advise further on your query, although we assume that your 1980 Land Cruiser was produced in 1979 or 1980. Sorry we can’t confirm this.

        Thanks

  7. I have a 2008 Estima Hybrid (import) – how do I find the VIN? I can’t seem to find it in any of the locations mentioned.

    Reply

    1. Hi Pete,
      Thanks for your comment.
      Please can you provide your vehicle registration so we can look into this for you.
      Thanks.

      Reply

      2. I have now found some numbers – just not sure which is the VIN? How many digits and what would it start with?

      3. Hi Pete,
        The VIN number is composed of 17 characters, digits and capital letters.
        Thanks.

      4. Hi Toyota – the sticker is really unclear and I can’t find a number that is that long on it. There are a number of smaller numbers that maybe I should put together?

      5. Hi Pete,
        If you are having difficulty locating your VIN number, your nearest Toyota Centre will be best placed to assist you further.
        You can find them using this link – https://fal.cn/3h2dT.
        Thanks.

  8. Hello
    I’m trying to add my Hilux to my Toyota but everytime I try to verify my vehicle it doesn’t accept the version code & says ‘vehicle cannot be verified please contact Toyota’ so how can I verify vehicle to get my service history online? Thank you.

    Reply

      1. Hi I am struggling to find my vin number for my 66 plate Toyota Aygo. And wondering if someone could help me locate it.

      2. Hi Joseph,
        In the five-door Aygo you should be able to find the VIN where it is applied to the body just inside the offside rear door shut.
        If you are still having difficulty locating your VIN number, your nearest Toyota Centre will be best placed to assist you further.
        You can find them using this link – https://fal.cn/3h2dT
        Thanks.

    1. Hi there,
      Thanks for your comment
      In most modern Toyota cars, you’ll find a visible VIN through a special cut-out at the bottom of the windscreen.
      Additional VINs are also printed on tamper-proof stickers located just inside the shut line of the front nearside door.
      If you are still having difficulty locating your VIN number, your nearest Toyota Centre will be best placed to assist you further.
      You can find them using this link – https://fal.cn/3h2dT
      Thanks.

      Reply

  10. I have a RAV 4 Reg No T781 JAH first registered in March 1999 but it could have been produced in 1998 so not sure if E10 is OK to use. Please advise. Thanks.

    Reply

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