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Read moreCheck vehicle information with Alfa Romeo VIN
Looking for the VIN?
Here is there you’ll find it:
Alfa Romeo has a long history in motorsports stretching back to the dawn of the automobile. However, after WWII, they needed to find a way to boost sales to stay afloat. They started manufacturing small, high performance roadsters and sedans that were within reach of regular buyers. Although Alfa had sold vehicles in the U.S. for years, they didn’t have a major foothold until Dustin Hoffman drove a Spider in 1967’s “The Graduate”. From then on, it became the car to buy for people who wanted an affordable way to experience Italian motoring. Fiat bought the company from the Italian government in 1986, merging operations. Alfa pulled out of the U.S. market in 1995, returning in 2006 through a deal to distribute through Chrysler dealerships. After the two companies merged, Alfa Romeo’s lineup expanded to include the 8C, 4C and Giulia.
Are you finally ready to buy the Italian sports car of your dreams? We can help. When you use our VIN check, you’ll be able to match up factory information with the vehicle. This makes it easy to find issues with listings and avoid obviously faked vehicles. Want to take the risk out of your next vehicle purchase? By ordering a VIN report, you’ll also have information on accidents, title changes, and other hidden issues that can cause problems down the line.
Is the car you’re looking at genuine? It’s not uncommon for unscrupulous buyers to put different badges and decals on a car to make it look like a higher trim model. Add a couple factory options to the interior, and it’s easy to get buyers to overlook what’s under the body. The vehicle identification number is hard to alter, making it easy to compare the factory information it contains to the car being sold. This way, you can avoid vehicles that have been tampered with. Of course, sometimes there’s just a mistake in their listing. By checking the VIN, you can verify the seller’s information is correct. When you use our decoder, you can filter out faulty listings, simplifying the search for your next car.
The VIN is required to identify the vehicle on paperwork, so it’s put in places that are hard to damage or replace. On some tags and stamps, Alfa Romeo adds stars to this number. Since stars have lines in every direction, it’s hard to file away or otherwise tamper with this character. When you’re writing down the VIN to decode it on our site, these stars should be left out. Here are the places where you’re most likely to find the VIN on an Alfa Romeo.
There are two places you can find the VIN in the cabin:
There are a few places under the hood where you’ll find the VIN number:
Like any vehicle, the VIN is used to identify cars on official documents. You can find the VIN on the title, as well as car insurance policies, window stickers and some auto repair receipts.
What can you learn when you decode the VIN? Here’s what information each character stands for, and the meanings of the most common characters.
The first three characters identify the manufacturer. On Alfa Romeos, this is “ZAR”. The “Z” is for cars made in Italy, while “AR” represents Alfa Romeo.
The next 6 characters identify the type of vehicle. The fourth character is the safety restraint equipment:
Code | Equipment |
---|---|
A | Front airbags |
B | Front airbags and side airbags for front seat passengers |
C | Front airbags and side airbags for all passengers |
D | No airbags |
The fifth character is the model generation. This uses letters, so “A” is the first generation, “B” is the second generation, and so on.
The sixth character is the body style:
Code | Body Style |
---|---|
1 | Sedan or two seat hardtop |
2 | Roadster |
5 | Spider |
6 | Two door coupe |
The seventh character on recent models is the engine. Here are some examples of common American-market engines:
Code | Engine |
---|---|
8 | 4.7 liter V8 |
6 | 2.5 liter V6 |
A | 2.0 liter turbo inline 4 |
B | 1.8 liter turbo inline 4 |
Older models use this character for both the engine and the equipment level.
The eighth character is the model and trim level. There are a huge number of possible characters, which change from year to year to cover all of Alfa Romeo’s models. If you want to decode this character, you should look up the VIN number on our website.
The ninth character is generated by a mathematical formula. It helps with error correction when entering the VIN into databases and official records.
The tenth character is the year. There are 30 possible numbers and letters used for this character. 2022 models use the letter “N”.
Code | Country | Code | Country | Code | Country | Code | Country |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
E | 1984 | R | 1994 | 4 | 2004 | E | 2014 |
F | 1985 | S | 1995 | 5 | 2005 | F | 2015 |
G | 1986 | T | 1996 | 6 | 2006 | G | 2016 |
H | 1987 | V | 1997 | 7 | 2007 | H | 2017 |
J | 1988 | W | 1998 | 8 | 2008 | J | 2018 |
K | 1989 | X | 1999 | 9 | 2009 | K | 2019 |
L | 1990 | Y | 2000 | A | 2010 | L | 2020 |
M | 1991 | 1 | 2001 | B | 2011 | M | 2021 |
N | 1992 | 2 | 2002 | C | 2012 | N | 2022 |
P | 1993 | 3 | 2003 | D | 2013 | P | 2023 |
The last characters in the VIN are the serial number. Two cars can have the same serial number. Only the full VIN is unique to each vehicle.
What kind of information do you get when you use our site to search for a VIN? Here are a few examples:
Locations vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. However, there are three places you can find the code on most vehicles:
- Look through the windshield at the dashboard. On the driver’s side, you should see a small metal plate with the number stamped into it.
- Open the driver’s door. Look at the front and side of the door pillar for an I.D. sticker. It usually has the manufacturer’s logo on it. The code should be on this sticker.
- Open the hood. You may see a sticker on the firewall or near the passenger’s side strut tower. Some cars have the number engraved in one of these areas.
Since this number is used to identify the vehicle on official documents, you can also find it on the title, the window sticker, and on insurance policies.
We also decode numbers for RVs, heavy-duty trucks and motorcycles. If you need to decode an RV number, make sure it’s the one issued by the chassis manufacturer, not the RV outfitter.
No. Canadian and Mexican cars usually use the same format. Other countries use their own formats.
It’s up to the manufacturer to determine what they want to include for some parts of the number. For example, some companies don’t include information about transmissions or trim levels.
Usually, no. A few manufacturers stamp the code into the engine. If the VINs on the engine and car match, then it’s the original engine. On most vehicles, there isn’t anything that ties an engine to a specific vehicle. At most, looking up the vehicle on our website will tell you if a different type of engine was installed. For example, if someone swaps a V8 into a Ford Mustang, our site will tell you it originally came with a V6.
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