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Land Rover VIN Decoder
Enter any 17-character Land Rover VIN. Free US-market Land Rover VIN decoder backed by the official NHTSA VPIC database — engine code, assembly plant, model year, body class, and every open recall, in about 30 seconds.
How to read a Land Rover VIN
A Land Rover VIN, like any modern road-vehicle VIN, is 17 characters split into three blocks: the World Manufacturer Identifier (WMI) in positions 1–3, the Vehicle Descriptor Section (VDS) in positions 4–9, and the Vehicle Identifier Section (VIS) in positions 10–17. Here's a real Land Rover VIN broken down position by position.
1S2A3L4W5R627F8K9710H11A120130140150160171
| Position | Chars | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | S | Country of origin S = United Kingdom. Land Rover VINs starting with SAL (and the secondary SAD) are built in England — Solihull (Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, Velar, Defender, Discovery) and Halewood (Evoque, Discovery Sport). The current Defender is assembled in Nitra, Slovakia but JLR still issues it a UK-coded SAL VIN; CheckMyVIN reports the actual Plant Country from VPIC rather than inferring it from this letter. SAJ (also S = UK) is the Jaguar sibling marque, a separate Make. |
| 2-3 | AL | Manufacturer (WMI) AL = Land Rover within the SAL World Manufacturer Identifier. The main Land Rover WMI is SAL; SAD appears on some lines; both decode as Make = LAND ROVER. The closely-related SAJ stem belongs to Jaguar (Make = JAGUAR). Land Rover does not split model families at the WMI level the way some makers do — the model line is encoded in positions 4-8 instead. |
| 4-8 | WR2FK | Vehicle Descriptor Section (VDS) Encodes the model line, body style, restraint system, and engine/drivetrain. Land Rover does not publish a public VDS-to-trim table, so CheckMyVIN does not guess that "WR2FK" means a specific trim — instead it reports the Model, Trim, and Engine that NHTSA VPIC returns directly (for this VIN: Range Rover Sport, HSE, 3.0L supercharged V6). |
| 9 | 7 | Check digit A mod-11 checksum computed from the other 16 positions. NHTSA uses it to reject typos before returning a decode — if the check digit is wrong, VPIC flags an error and CheckMyVIN treats the entry as an unreadable VIN. |
| 10 | H | Model year H = 2017. The full year-code table is below. The 30-year ISO cycle skips I, O, Q, U, Z and 0 to avoid confusion with similar-looking characters. |
| 11 | A | Assembly plant For this VIN the plant character maps to Solihull, England — Land Rover's historic main plant (Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, Velar, Defender, Discovery). CheckMyVIN reads Plant City and Plant Country straight from the VPIC record rather than inferring from position 11; Land Rover's other plants are Halewood, England (Evoque, Discovery Sport) and Nitra, Slovakia (current Defender). |
| 12-17 | 000001 | Production sequence A 6-digit serial number that increments through the model year at that plant. Not meaningful on its own, but together with the year and plant it confirms the VIN is internally consistent. |
VIN year codes (position 10)
The 10th character of every modern VIN encodes the model year. The cycle skips the letters I, O, Q, U and Z, and the digit 0, to avoid being confused with similar digits. This table covers every model year currently on US roads.
| Code | Year | Code | Year | Code | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 2010 | H | 2017 | R | 2024 |
| B | 2011 | J | 2018 | S | 2025 |
| C | 2012 | K | 2019 | T | 2026 |
| D | 2013 | L | 2020 | V | 2027 |
| E | 2014 | M | 2021 | W | 2028 |
| F | 2015 | N | 2022 | X | 2029 |
| G | 2016 | P | 2023 | Y | 2030 |
Land Rover WMI codes (positions 1–3)
The first three characters of the VIN identify the manufacturer and country of assembly. Land Rover uses several WMI codes depending on plant and model line.
| WMI | Meaning |
|---|---|
| SAL | Land Rover — United Kingdom (Solihull & Halewood; the main Land Rover WMI) |
| SAD | Land Rover — United Kingdom (secondary Land Rover WMI used on some lines) |
| SAJ | Jaguar — United Kingdom (the JLR sibling marque; decodes as Make = JAGUAR, not Land Rover) |
Land Rover build sheet & options
A full Land Rover build sheet — original Monroney options, paint code (e.g. Santorini Black / Fuji White / Carpathian Grey), interior color and trim (Windsor leather / Ebony / Vintage Tan), the Meridian sound system, off-road / Terrain Response packages, and dealer-installed accessories — is not part of the federal NHTSA VPIC dataset. CheckMyVIN can confirm the model, trim (S / SE / HSE / Autobiography / First Edition / Dynamic), engine family (Ingenium 2.0L turbo, 3.0L supercharged or mild-hybrid inline-six, supercharged 5.0L V8, P400e PHEV), assembly plant, model year, body class, and recall history pulled live from NHTSA. For the original window sticker your authoritative source is a Land Rover Retailer, who can pull the build specification from the VIN through JLR's dealer system. Land Rover also publishes its official US owner site at landroverusa.com. CheckMyVIN never claims options data it cannot verify against the NHTSA record.
Land Rover VIN decoder FAQ
Is the Land Rover VIN decoder free?
Yes — every Land Rover VIN lookup on CheckMyVIN is free, with no signup, no email gate, and no usage cap for individual users. Data comes from the public NHTSA VPIC API. The optional "full vehicle history report" link at the bottom of each report is an affiliate to a paid third-party history service; you can ignore it.
How do I read a Land Rover VIN (Range Rover, Defender, Discovery, Evoque)?
A Land Rover VIN is 17 characters: position 1 is the country (S = United Kingdom), positions 2-3 are the WMI (AL = Land Rover in the SAL stem), positions 4-8 are the model/engine descriptor, position 9 is the check digit, position 10 is the model year (H = 2017 in the worked example above), and position 11 is the plant. Enter any 17-character Land Rover VIN above and CheckMyVIN reads every field via the official NHTSA database — that is the same thing as a Land Rover VIN number decoder, VIN lookup, or VIN check.
Where is the VIN located on a Land Rover?
Three places on a modern Land Rover: the dash plate at the base of the windshield (read it from outside, driver side), the driver door-jamb certification sticker, and the title / registration. The InControl app also shows the VIN under vehicle details. On classic Defenders the VIN plate is on the bulkhead under the hood and stamped on the chassis.
What does the 10th character of a Land Rover VIN mean?
The 10th character is the model-year code, following the ISO 3779 cycle every manufacturer uses: A = 2010, B = 2011, … H = 2017 (the worked example above), … Y = 2030. The cycle skips the letters I, O, Q, U, Z and the digit 0 to avoid confusion with similar-looking characters. It tells you the model year, not the build date.
How do I find my Land Rover engine code or paint code from the VIN?
The engine family is reported by VPIC — CheckMyVIN shows the engine model NHTSA returns (Ingenium 2.0L turbo four, 3.0L supercharged or mild-hybrid inline-six, 5.0L supercharged V8, or the P400e plug-in hybrid). The paint code is NOT encoded in the VIN: there is no character that decodes to a Land Rover paint color. To get the paint code, check the colour label in the engine bay or door area, or ask a Land Rover Retailer to look it up from the VIN through JLR's system. CheckMyVIN does not fake a paint-from-VIN lookup that the data cannot support.
Can I check Land Rover recalls with the VIN?
Yes. Every CheckMyVIN report runs the VIN against the live NHTSA recall API and lists any open campaign for that model and year. You can also browse worked Land Rover examples on the /land-rover/recall page, then run your own VIN to see what applies to it specifically.
Does the decoder cover the Defender, plug-in hybrids, and the electric Range Rover?
Yes — every Land Rover in NHTSA VPIC is supported. The current Defender (90 / 110 / 130, built in Nitra, Slovakia) decodes with its Ingenium engine and Plant Country = Slovakia. P400e / P440e plug-in hybrids decode with Electrification Level = PHEV, showing both the engine and battery. The fully-electric Range Rover decodes with Electrification Level = BEV and the report switches to the EV view (battery details, no oil / spark rows).