VinCheck: VIN Decoder & Recall

IMPORTANT — NOT A GOVERNMENT APP

VinCheck presents data published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). It is an independent app made by Mobilia Apps: it is not affiliated with, endorsed by or operated by NHTSA or any other government entity, it does not represent a government entity, and it is not affiliated with any manufacturer or dealer. Coverage is strongest for vehicles sold in the United States, and source data can be incomplete or delayed. VinCheck is not a vehicle history report — it does not show accidents, mileage rollback, theft, liens or title status.

Point your camera at a VIN and get the full factory specification plus the safety recall campaigns listed for that make, model and year. No account, no paywall on the lookup itself.

Coverage note before you install: the specification and recall data come from the US government (NHTSA) database, which covers vehicles sold in the United States — including Canadian and Mexican-built cars from those manufacturers. For a vehicle sold in another market, VinCheck decodes the manufacturer, country and year from the VIN itself, but the full factory record and recall list will not be available.

Then save the car to your garage, and VinCheck tells you when a new recall is issued for it — the notice that normally arrives as a letter to whoever owned the car three keepers ago.

🔍 SCAN OR TYPE
• Scan the VIN off the windscreen, door jamb or logbook with the camera
• Character recognition runs on your device — the camera image is never uploaded
• Or type the 17 characters if the plate is dirty, faded or awkward to reach

🧾 FULL FACTORY DECODE
• Make, model, year, trim and body class
• Engine — displacement, cylinders, fuel type, power
• Transmission, drive type and plant of manufacture
• Series, doors, GVWR and the rest of the manufacturer record

🚨 SAFETY RECALL CAMPAIGNS
• Every recall campaign NHTSA lists for that make, model and year
• A one-tap link to NHTSA's own lookup to check whether your exact VIN still needs the repair
• What the defect is, what the consequence is, and what the remedy is
• The manufacturer's own campaign number to quote at a dealer

🚗 YOUR GARAGE
• Save the cars you own, the car you are about to buy, and the family fleet
• Nickname, plate and a photo per vehicle
• New recall issued for a saved vehicle? You get a notification

📋 LOOKUP HISTORY
• Every VIN you have checked, kept for reference
• Useful when you are shortlisting three used cars in one afternoon
• Share a decode result straight from the share sheet

💡 WHY IT MATTERS WHEN BUYING
• A VIN decode exposes a mis-advertised trim, engine or model year in seconds
• An unrepaired recall is a free fix at a franchised dealer — and a negotiating point
• Both checks take under a minute in the seller's driveway

WHY DRIVERS USE IT
• The decode and the recall check are free, for any VIN, with no sign-up
• Works for the car you own and the car you have not bought yet
• Recall alerts follow the vehicle, not the registered keeper
• No account, no email address, no personal details

PERFECT FOR
• Used-car buyers checking a listing before viewing it
• Owners who bought second-hand and never get manufacturer post
• Small dealers, mechanics and detailers checking stock
• Anyone with more than one car in the household

FREE AND PREMIUM Decoding, recall lookups, lookup history and recall alerts for saved vehicles are free. The free version saves one vehicle to your garage, and a short ad adds a few more. Premium unlocks an unlimited garage and removes ads — as a monthly or yearly subscription, or a single lifetime payment.

OFFICIAL SOURCES NHTSA publishes both of these itself, and they are the record:
• VIN decoding, NHTSA vPIC: https://vpic.nhtsa.dot.gov/decoder/
• Recall lookup: https://www.nhtsa.gov/recalls

Always confirm whether a specific VIN has an unrepaired recall there, or with a franchised dealer, before buying or repairing a car.

Recent changes:
• Pasted VINs with dashes or spaces are accepted.
• Check again keeps your saved result if NHTSA can't be reached.
• Recall results are described per model and year, with a link to check your exact VIN.
• Scanned VINs no longer pick up a stray letter from the label.
• Double-tapping Save no longer closes the app.