Plan to buy a used BMW? You need to check its vehicle history beforehand and see if everything is fine, or you might end up with a lemon. Luckily, a VIN can tell you more than you might think, like specifications and salvage & accident records. In this post, we’ll show you how to decode a BMW VIN and get its vehicle history and specs.

Where to find the VIN?

How to read a BMW VIN?

Just like any VIN, each digit has a specific meaning. This is a chart to help you identify what each digit means in a BMW VIN number. With some patience and basic knowledge, you can decode the VIN by yourself.

But if you’d prefer more detailed info about the BMW VIN, you can try a professional VIN decoder to do the work for you.

Method 1: Find detailed vehicle history with a VIN decoder

If you want to skip the hassle of searching through numerous online pages, you may use a professional VIN decoder. They have access to many public record sources and can give you more than basic specs and recall records – like accident & salvage, theft, and title records. Here are the top 3 VIN decoders that we like.

1. BeenVerified (Recommended)

BeenVerified is a powerful VIN lookup tool that dives deep into a car’s past. With access to a large number of public data sources, it can give you a comprehensive look into the vehicle’s history. BeenVerified is powered by an NMVTIS-approved data provider and can retrieve details like accident & salvage records, ownership history, recalls, warranty records, and more.

1. Go to BeenVerified.
2. Enter the VIN and click SEARCH.
   
3. Wait as BeenVerified runs the search and compiles a report.
4. On the report page, you’ll see a navigation bar on the left to help you easily access the section that you’re interested in. For example, the Recalls section.
   
5. Note that BeenVerified is a subscription-based service and you’ll need to purchase a membership plan to view the report.

What do we like about BeenVerified?
BeenVerified is an all-around search service. With one subscription, you can access its other search services like phone number, email address, and address lookups.

2. Bumper

Bumper is an excellent alternative to BeenVerified. It is a professional vehicle search tool that gathers vehicle records from government agencies, insurance providers, car industry sources, and more. With a VIN number, you can know about a car’s ownership, maintenance, warranty, repair records, accidents, theft records, and more.

1. Visit the Bumper search page.
2. Enter the VIN and click SEARCH.
   
3. Wait for Bumper to search through its data sources and find you all the available records associated with the VIN number. Note that Bumper is also a paid service.
   

3. EpicVIN

EpicVIN is a reliable vehicle data provider powered by NMVTIS (National Motor Vehicle Title Information System). With over 350 million data records from reliable resources, it’s capable of offering you genuine information like salvage & accident records, theft records, hidden damages, and more. Here’s how to use it:

1. Go to the EpicVIN search page.
2. Enter the VIN number and click Check VIN.
   
3. Once it finds a match, it’ll generate a report showing the complete history of the vehicle. You may get information like ownership history, actual odometer readings, warranty details, and more.
   

What do we like about EpicVIN?
EpicVIN is a paid service. But it will offer you some free preliminary information like the engine size, last odometer reading, and manufacturing country of the vehicle, before your purchase.

Method 2: Search the VIN in the NICB database

If you’re only curious about the theft or salvage records of the vehicle, you can make use of NICB’s VIN check tool. It is a free VIN lookup platform provided by the National Insurance Crime Bureau and is accessible to everyone. Enter a VIN, and it’ll give you a vehicle’s theft and salvage records quickly. Here’s how to use it:

1. Visit the NICB VINCheck page.
2. Enter the VIN number, check the terms of use, and click SEARCH VIN.
   
3. Wait for it to be done. You’ll know if the vehicle was ever reported stolen or damaged to a total loss.
   

Please note that the info might not be up to date, because it uses data supplied by car insurance companies, which is not always well-maintained. And it only allows 5 free searches within a 24-hour period. To get immediate and complete information, you can try a VIN decoder.

Method 3: Get technical data from the BMW website

To decode the VIN of a specific car brand, you can visit its official website. Because they’ll put vehicle information on the Owners page for customers to check. What’s better, it’s normally free of charge.

1. Simply navigate to the BMW website, enter the VIN, and click ENTER.
   
2. Download the manuals for the vehicle. Normally the technical data will be found in the Owner’s Manual.
   

Apart from that, BMW also allows you to check the vehicle’s recall records. You can browse the website and explore what BMW has to offer. If you don’t have the time to scour through different files, or you need more than basic specifications and recall records, move on to the next method.

Method 4: Other free platforms to run a VIN lookup

1. NHTSA (recalls)

NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) offers a free VIN lookup service to help you learn whether a particular vehicle has any unrepaired safety recalls.

2. Decode This (basic vehicle specs)

If you only need to know the basic info about your car engine, you can try Decode This, a free online tool. Enter a VIN, then it will pull out the basic engine & vehicle specs related to it.

You may also want to know…

1. Where to find the VIN?

VIN is a 17-digit unique identifier assigned to a vehicle by manufacturers, and it remains with the vehicle from its beginning to its end. If you have access to the car, you can find it from the following places:

• The front of the engine block
• The rear wheel well
• Driver-side doorpost
• Underneath the spare tire
• The front of the car frame

2. Is it possible to obtain vehicle history by the license plate?

If the VIN number is not available for the moment, no worries. You can still get the information you need by looking up the license plate number (if you have one).

Typically, mainstream VIN search services including what we’ve mentioned above will also offer a license plate lookup feature. You can use the search box here (powered by BeenVerified) or choose one that suits your needs.

3. Where can I reliable vehicle search services?

To find a reliable VIN lookup service, we recommend you refer to the NMVTIS official page and locate the list of data providers approved by it. The services that we’ve introduced in this post are also on the list.

These are the 3 methods to decode a BMW VIN. We hope you find this post helpful.

BMW VIN chart is from Pinterest