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A Nissan VIN is the standardized 17-character vehicle identification number (VIN) that every Nissan car sold in the United States has carried since the 1981 model year, in the format set by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Part 565; outside North America, the same number is often called the chassis number.
A Nissan VIN number decodes into factory specifications and production details: model year, body type, engine type, drivetrain, assembly plant and restraint system. The same 17 characters are the key to the vehicle's history records.
A Nissan VIN check adds what happened after the factory: reported accidents, title brands, odometer entries, auction listings and open recalls. For a used car, use the report together with a physical inspection and the vehicle's documents.
Always compare the decoded information with the VIN shown on the vehicle and its registration documents. The Nissan VIN decoder makes basic vehicle identification straightforward:
The same 17 characters cover every Nissan model line, from the Nissan Versa, Nissan Sentra and Nissan Altima sedans to the Nissan Frontier pickup, the Nissan Maxima and the Nissan GT-R, and back to the Nissan 240SX and Nissan 300ZX; open the model page for the codes that apply to it.
The Nissan VIN is stamped on a metal plate at the lower driver's side corner of the dashboard and reads through the windshield from outside the car. Find your VIN in two more places as well; the same 17-digit VIN should read identically in all three:
Our Nissan VIN decoder draws on 19,135,612 Nissan records, one of the five largest makes in our database, and 27.5% of them carry at least one problem in their history, against a 21.3% median for makes of comparable fleet age. The fleet is 11.1 years old on average, half of it 2016 models or earlier, with a median last recorded odometer reading of 57,026 miles.
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Nissans in the database | 19,135,612 |
| Average age | 11.1 years |
| Median model year | 2016 |
| Median last recorded mileage | 57,026 miles |
| Average last recorded mileage | 73,154 miles |
| Average mileage per year | 12,066 miles |
| At least one problem in history | 27.5% |
| Appeared at a salvage auction | 26.8% |
| Salvage title | 17.9% |
| Rebuilt title | 0.3% |
| Odometer rollback | 1.2% |
| Odometer reported as not actual | 2.5% |
| Flood damage | 0.6% |
| Fire damage | 0.3% |
| Hail damage | 0.3% |
| NHTSA recall campaigns per model year, average | 3.07 |
| Listed or sold in more than one state | 12.7% |
| Data as of | August 2026 |
Source: EpicVIN Vehicle Data Research
Recall campaigns are counted per model year, not per car: 3.07 on average across the Nissan model years in our database, against 2.81 for makes of comparable fleet age. The average says nothing about the specific vehicle in front of you, so check its VIN with Nissan and NHTSA directly; the three campaigns in the next section are the place to start.
| Figure | What it is | What to do about it |
|---|---|---|
| 27.5% | Carry at least one problem record, against a 21.3% median for makes of comparable fleet age | More than one Nissan in four has something on file, 1.3 times the peer median, and most of it arrives through the auction lane, where every sale leaves photos and a damage estimate in the record. Ask for that record before you accept a clean description. |
| 26.8% | Have been sold at a salvage auction, against a 20.6% median for the same age group | About 5.1 million cars with an auction sale in the report. The seller's description was written after the repair; the auction photos were taken before it, so read the damage line and the sale date first. |
| 17.9% | Salvage title, against 0.3% rebuilt and a 12.8% median for the same age group | About 68 salvage titles for every rebuilt one. A Nissan advertised as repaired usually still carries the salvage brand, so treat the word rebuilt in a listing as a claim to check against the title line, and read that line together with the auction sale date. |
| 12.7% | Listed or sold in more than one state, against a 13.3% median for the same age group | About one Nissan in eight has been listed or sold in more than one state. The state on the title is not always where the car spent its life; the report lists the states in order, and a move that follows a damage record deserves a question. |
| State | Share of Nissans in our database |
|---|---|
| Texas | 9.5% |
| California | 8.1% |
| Florida | 7.6% |
| New York | 4.7% |
| Georgia | 4.1% |
The top three states together hold 25.2% of the Nissans in our database, and two of the three are hurricane states; the flood share of 0.6% sits exactly at the peer median, so on a Texas or Florida car, the check is not a make-level alarm but the Water / Flood line of the auction record for that VIN. New York adds 4.7%, and on a 2014–2016 Rogue from a state that salts its winter roads, the first item to check is campaign 22V-024 in the recall section below: corrosion of an under-dash electrical connector from water and salt.
| Damage type | Share of Nissans in our database | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Collision | 20.9% | The widest label: a bumper scrape and a bent frame both file under it. Judge by the photos and the repair estimate, not by the word. |
| All Over | 1.2% | Damage on several panels at once, typically hail, vandalism or a multi-point impact, and usually the point where the insurer writes the car off. |
| Mechanical | 0.7% | Sold for an engine or drivetrain fault rather than bodywork. On a 2021–2024 Rogue or a 2019–2020 Altima with a variable compression turbo (VC-Turbo) engine, check NHTSA campaign 25V-437 before anything else. |
| Water / Flood | 0.5% | Water in the cabin and in the wiring. The one label where a repaired car is generally still the one to walk away from. |
| Rollover | 0.4% | Roof and pillar damage. Check the roofline in the auction photos and ask whether the airbags deployed. |
Check a Nissan VIN before you read the listing. The damage line is where the report starts.
A recall check by VIN does not depend on what the seller knows or says. On a used Nissan, three campaigns come first:
| Issue | Models | NHTSA campaign |
|---|---|---|
| Engine bearing failure in the 1.5-liter three-cylinder and 2.0-liter four-cylinder variable compression turbo (VC-Turbo) engines: engine failure, hot oil discharged through the block, fire risk | 2021–2024 Rogue, 2019–2020 Altima (also 2019–2022 Infiniti QX50 and 2022 QX55) | 25V-437 (June 2025) |
| Corrosion of the under-dash harness connector from water and salt entering the driver's side foot well: power window and seat failure, battery drain, fire risk | 2014–2016 Rogue | 22V-024 (January 2022) |
| Jackknife-style ignition key that can fold while driving; contact with the folded key can shut the engine off | 2014–2020 Rogue, 2017–2022 Rogue Sport | 23V-093 (February 2023) |
Recall repairs on Nissan vehicles are free of charge at a Nissan dealer. Enter the VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls or in the Nissan recall lookup listed in the resources below and see whether the work is still open. A continuously variable transmission (CVT) warranty extension or a service bulletin is not a recall: a Nissan dealer checks it by VIN, and it does not show in the recall database.
Nissan VIN numbers are 17 characters long and split into three sections: the World Manufacturer Identifier (WMI), the Vehicle Descriptor Section (VDS) and the Vehicle Identifier Section (VIS). A standard VIN uses no I, O or Q. The sample below, JN8AS5MV3BW269745, decodes as a 2011 Nissan Rogue, a crossover utility vehicle (CUV) with a 2.5-liter engine and four-wheel drive, built in Miyawaka, Fukuoka, Japan.
| Digits | Sample | What they encode |
|---|---|---|
| 1–3 | JN8 | JN8: Nissan built in Japan, vehicle type 8. The World Manufacturer Identifier (WMI) is the first three digits: J is the country, N is the vehicle manufacturer, and the third character is the vehicle type, that is, what kind of vehicle it is: 1 a passenger car, 6 a truck, 8 a sport utility vehicle (SUV) or crossover. Nissan WMIs in the NHTSA registry: JN1, JN3, JN6, JN8, JNK, JNR, JNT and JNX for Japan; 1N4, 1N6, 5N1 and 5N3 for the United States, with 5N1 and 5N3 on US-built SUVs and crossovers; 3N1, 3N6, 3N8 and 3PC for Mexico; SJK for the United Kingdom. |
| 4–8 | AS5MV | Vehicle Descriptor Section (VDS), the part the decoder deciphers into model line (Altima, Rogue, Sentra: each Nissan model line has its own code), body style, engine type and restraint system. On the sample the five characters resolve to the Rogue line, a crossover body and a 2.5-liter engine, and the drivetrain sits in the same block: front-wheel drive (FWD), all-wheel drive (AWD) or, as here, four-wheel drive (4WD). |
| 9 | 3 | Check digit, computed from the other 16 characters with the formula in the United States Department of Transportation rule, 49 CFR Part 565. If it does not match, the number was mistyped or altered: recheck it against the door-jamb label before you decode anything. |
| 10 | B | Model year: B is 2011. A is 2010, then C 2012, D 2013, E 2014, F 2015, G 2016, H 2017, J 2018, K 2019, L 2020, M 2021, N 2022, P 2023, R 2024, S 2025 and T 2026; I, O, Q, U, Z are skipped. A second sample, 1N4AL3AP0DC219625, a 2013 Nissan Altima, shows the same rule: D is 2013. |
| 11 | W | Assembly plant: W is Nissan Motor Kyushu in Miyawaka, Fukuoka, on this sample. Other Nissan plant letters on this page: C is Smyrna, Tennessee (the 2013 Altima, 1N4AL3AP0DC219625), N is Canton, Mississippi, Y is Aguascalientes, Mexico. Each automaker assigns its own plant letters, so the same letter means a different factory at another brand. |
| 12–17 | 269745 | Production serial number, unique to this one car. Positions 10 to 17 together are the last eight digits that Nissan parts catalogs and dealer service desks ask for. |
The VIN says what left the factory. What happened afterwards, from accident history to odometer readings, sits in the records tied to the VIN, and that is what the history report is for.
Year 2022
Make Nissan
Model Altima
Fuel Type Gasoline
Engine 2.5L
Made in USA
A Nissan VIN decoder build sheet starts with what the 17 characters encode: for the sample VIN 1N4AL3AP0DC219625, a 2013 Altima sedan with a 2.5-liter engine, built in Smyrna, Tennessee. Here is what the decode and the history report return:
The same detailed information about the vehicle helps when ordering original parts by make and model or checking whether an engine, a transmission or a drivetrain fits; the vehicle condition is the part the VIN never carries, which is why the car history check follows the decode.
Before buying a used Nissan, compare the VIN across the vehicle and its documents. Then review available specifications, recall status, mileage, title records, and damage history before making a decision.Alex Black, CMO and automotive expert, EpicVIN
Frequently asked questions (FAQs) about Nissan VIN numbers, answered with the data behind them.
Type the 17 characters into the Nissan VIN lookup form at the top of this page and press Check Now. The decoder works against NHTSA's vehicle registry and our own records: it reads a Nissan VIN number for free and returns the model year, the body type, the engine and the assembly plant for any of the 19,135,612 Nissan records in our database; the full vehicle history report adds accident history, title brands, odometer readings and ownership history for the same VIN.
Two layers: what the factory built and what has happened to the car since. The build layer is the engine type, body type and restraint system encoded in the VIN; the history layer of a Nissan VIN number check is where 17.9% of the Nissans in our database show a salvage title, 1.2% an odometer rollback, 2.5% a reading flagged as not actual and 0.6% flood damage, and where open recalls are listed for the specific VIN.
Partly. The Nissan VIN decoder rebuilds what the 17 characters encode: model line, body type, engine type, restraint system and assembly plant, with at most a hint of the trim level; option packages and the paint code live on the window sticker and the door-jamb label, and a Nissan dealer's parts department reads them by VIN from the factory record. In our database, 43.7% of Nissans are sedans, 19.3% sport utility vehicles (SUV), 16.8% crossovers, 8.8% pickups and 7.5% hatchbacks; 97.2% run on gasoline, 1.2% are electric vehicles (EV) and 0.2% diesel.
The 10th. On the sample VIN JN8AS5MV3BW269745 it is B, which stands for 2011; A is 2010, L is 2020, T is 2026, and the letters I, O, Q, U, Z never appear in that position. The median Nissan in our database is a 2016 model, coded G, and the average age of the fleet is 11.1 years.
The first character of the VIN gives the country and the 11th gives the plant, and that holds for all Nissan VINs since 1981: J is Japan, 1 or 5 is the United States, 3 is Mexico and K is South Korea. In our database, 55.9% of Nissans were assembled in the United States, 23.4% in Mexico, 17.9% in Japan and 2.8% in South Korea; the two Nissan vehicle assembly plants in the United States are Smyrna, Tennessee (plant letter C) and Canton, Mississippi (plant letter N).
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