VIN Number Tracker
Enter VIN to search for locations
If your car is stolen or missing, you can try to find its location history by looking up the VIN number. The vehicle identification number (VIN) is the unique id code for a specific automobile. And if you’re looking for ways to track a car by its VIN number, you’re in the right place. In this tutorial, we’ll show you how.
Can you track a car location by VIN number?
If you have a car stolen or missing and you want to know its location, besides contacting the local authorities, there’re also things you can do to speed up the recovery process. And one of the most effective methods is looking up the VIN number.
If your car is not around, you may find the VIN number in these locations:
- Vehicle insurance card / insurance documents
- Vehicle title
- Dealership or manufacturer
- Registration card
- Owner’s manual
Technically, a single VIN number or license plate won’t give you real time location like a GPS does. By looking up the VIN number on online decoders, you’ll get a vehicle history report showing you information like ownership history and sale listing locations. You can then take further actions based on the owner’s details and try to recover the lost car.
Method 1: Reverse lookup the VIN number
1. BeenVerified
You can use an online VIN decoder to get detailed history of a vehicle. And when it comes to VIN number lookup, you’ll want to make BeenVerified your first stop. It’s a famous people search engine and also a NMVTIS-approved data provider. By searching the VIN or license plate, you may know the prior owners, sale listings and lots of other info of a vehicle.
- Go to BeenVerified VIN Lookup.
- Enter the VIN number and click Search.
- Wait for BeenVerified to search the vehicle database. Once it locates a match, it’ll generate a report containing all the available info such as owner details and sale listings. You can then take advantage of the complimentary people-search features to reverse lookup the names/addresses included in the report, or contact the local DMV.
2. EpicVIN
EpicVIN is a more cost-efficient alternative if you only need a single report. For a more affordable price, you can get an equally accurate vehicle history report from a NMVTIS-approved data provider. And just like BeenVerified, EpicVIN allows you to search with both a VIN number or a license plate.
- Go to EpicVIN.
- Enter the VIN number and click Search.
- If EpicVIN finds a match, it’ll generate a report showing the available records like odometer, accidents, sales history and more.
3. National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB)
You can also make use of the public VINCheck database by the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB). It’s a free tool that can help you check if a vehicle is reported stolen or salvaged. It’d also provide location details if available.
- Go to NICB.
- Enter the VIN number and click Search VIN.
- You’ll see the basic information in the results, such as theft and loss records. In some cases, this data would be enough to get you started.
Method 2: Look up the license plate
If you don’t have the VIN number, it’s still possible to find your car by looking up the license plate. Just enter the plate number in the search box below, and you may get the vehicle history report showing you the VIN and ownership history.
License Plate Lookup
Research a Vehicle by License Plate
Method 3: Contact the local DMV
Aside from calling the police, when trying to recover a stolen car, one important step is to update your records by reporting to the department of motor vehicles (DMV).
Also if you happen to spot any irregularities in the vehicle report, you can contact the local DMV and provide the registration info or sales history. This could help you speed up the process. Also you should let the DMV know your car is stolen so you won’t be responsible for any future issues related to the vehicle.