Every car you sold is still out there.
Keep the VIN of every car you've owned in one garage. We take each 17-character VIN apart, tell you what its characters mean, and hand you the exact searches that turn a number back into a car.
Two decoders, one site
Which era is your VIN from?
Vehicle numbering split into two eras in 1981, and the two halves don’t read the same way. Pick the one that matches your car.
From a VIN to “there it is.”
Three stepsType it once
Year, make and model decode from NHTSA automatically. Add the years you had it, then keep it private or give it a public page.
Line them all up
Every car you've owned in one list, in the order you owned them. Private by default; public per vehicle when you want to show it off.
Mark it found
Mark it found when you spot it — listed, scrapped or still rolling. Everything else stays searching until it turns up.
Four places worth checking.
One tap sends the exact VIN to each of them, pre-quoted, so you are not fighting the search box.
The broadest net — listings, forums, local ads that mention the VIN directly.
Best for recent listingsBing
Different index, different results — often turns up what Google's already dropped.
Worth the second lookCARFAX®
Title history, accidents and odometer readings, if a report exists for the VIN.
Best for historyNHTSA recalls
Open safety recalls tied to the VIN, pulled live from the federal database.
Free, always currentThis is what yours looks like.
Open recalls, pulled live from NHTSA.
Any VIN, yours or not. Useful before you buy, and useful when the car you sold is still someone else's problem. Run a recall check ↗
Public garages, if you feel like showing off.
What is FormerCars?
FormerCars is a personal VIN garage that lets you save vehicle VINs, organize basic details, and keep track of cars or trucks you once owned, still own, or simply want to remember.
Is FormerCars free to use?
Yes. FormerCars is designed to be a simple, free way to start saving VINs and organizing your vehicle history in one place.
What can I save in my VIN garage?
You can save a VIN along with vehicle details such as year, make, model, trim, color, notes, a photo, and whether you have marked that vehicle as found again.
Are my saved VINs public?
By default, vehicles you add get a shareable public page so you can show a car you\u2019re tracking. You can make any vehicle private with one click when adding or editing it, and private vehicles never appear in public listings or search.