World Manufacturer Identifier (positions 1–3)
The first character marks the country of assembly, the second is Ford's own code (almost always F), and the third splits the vehicle by division. A VIN starting with 1FA is a US-built Ford passenger car, 1FT a US-built truck, and 1FM a US-built SUV or multipurpose vehicle. Canada-built Fords use 2F, Mexico-built use 3F, and European-built Fords carry WF0.
| Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 1FA / 1FB / 1FC / 1FD | US-built Ford passenger car (Mustang and others) |
| 1FT | US-built Ford truck — F-150, Super Duty, Ranger |
| 1FM | US-built Ford SUV/MPV — Explorer, Expedition, Bronco |
| 2FA / 2FT | Canada-built Ford (Oakville, Ontario) |
| 3FA | Mexico-built Ford — Maverick, Mustang Mach-E |
| WF0 | Germany/Europe-built Ford |
Engine code (position 8)
Position 8 is the single most-checked character on a Ford VIN, since it's what separates a base engine from a performance variant — the difference between, say, a naturally aspirated F-150 and an EcoBoost or PowerBoost version. Engine codes recycle over time, so the same letter can mean a different engine in a 2005 VIN than in a 2025 one; the live decode above always resolves this correctly against the actual model year.
Model year and plant (positions 10–11)
Position 10 encodes the model year on a repeating cycle shared across the whole industry. Position 11 is the assembly plant code — Ford has built vehicles at plants including Dearborn Truck, Kansas City, Louisville, Flat Rock, Chicago, Oakville and Hermosillo, and the decoder above resolves the actual plant name and country for you.