Opel VIN Decoder

Decode any Opel VIN free in seconds. Enter the 17-character vehicle identification number from your Opel into the decoder above and get the model, year, engine family, trim, factory options, plant of origin, and recall status instantly, with no sign-up and no credit card.

Opel is the continental European counterpart to Vauxhall: the same cars, engineering, and platforms sold under a different badge in the UK. If you drive an Opel in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, or almost anywhere else in mainland Europe, your car’s British twin is riding around Manchester or Glasgow wearing a Vauxhall griffin on the bonnet. This page is built around the reality of most Opel searches: a car registered somewhere in the EU, a VIN that starts with a German-registered manufacturer code, and a recall system run through Germany’s federal transport authority rather than a UK or US agency.

This page is the Opel VIN hub. Below you’ll find Opel-specific WMI codes, the brand’s main assembly plants, a position-by-position guide to reading an Opel VIN, where to find the VIN on your car, and direct links to VIN decoders for individual models.

About Opel

Opel is older than the automobile itself. Adam Opel founded the company in Rüsselsheim, Germany, in January 1862, not to build cars but sewing machines, working out of a converted cow stable on his family’s property. The sewing machine business thrived, and in 1886 Opel added high-wheel bicycles to the lineup. Adam Opel died in 1895, four years before his sons decided to enter the automobile business; the first Opel car, the hand-built Patentmotorwagen “System Lutzmann,” rolled out of Rüsselsheim in the spring of 1899.

General Motors bought a controlling stake in Opel in 1929 and ran it as its German subsidiary for the better part of nine decades, alongside British sister brand Vauxhall. For a stretch in the 1950s, 60s, and into the 70s, GM even sold Opel-badged cars, including the Kadett, Rekord, and the sporty Opel GT, in the United States through Buick dealerships as a “captive import,” years before Buick began badging Isuzu-built cars under the same Opel name. In 2017, GM sold both Opel and Vauxhall to France’s PSA Group (then home to Peugeot and Citroen) for roughly $2.3 billion. When PSA merged with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in January 2021, Opel became part of the newly formed Stellantis, the multinational group it belongs to today alongside Vauxhall, Peugeot, Citroen, Fiat, and Jeep.

Opel’s manufacturing footprint remains centered in its home country. Rüsselsheim, the original site from 1862, builds the current Astra family on Stellantis’s STLA Medium platform. Eisenach, in the former East Germany, builds the electrified Grandland. Zaragoza, Spain, is Opel’s high-volume small-car plant. Gliwice, Poland, shifted from passenger cars to light commercial vans in 2022. Because Opel and Vauxhall share engineering start to finish, an Opel Corsa and a Vauxhall Corsa are mechanically identical cars built on the same lines.

Opel WMI codes (positions 1-3)

The first three characters of your VIN, the World Manufacturer Identifier (WMI), tell you who built the vehicle and where. The WMI is assigned by SAE International on behalf of ISO. Per NHTSA’s vPIC database, the following WMI codes are registered to Adam Opel AG:

All four codes trace back to the same NHTSA manufacturer record for Adam Opel AG, confirming that Opel and Vauxhall are, corporately, one manufacturer wearing two badges. The leading character “W” is the ISO 3780 country code for Germany, where Opel is headquartered in Rüsselsheim; NHTSA’s own record lists an inconsistent country field for a couple of these entries (a filing artifact from how the codes were registered for the US market), but the manufacturer of record and the ISO country code both point to Germany. If your Opel VIN begins with an unlisted WMI, it may indicate a rebadge, a parts-bin engine donor from a related Stellantis brand, or a data-entry error. Decode the full VIN with the tool above to confirm.

How to read an Opel VIN: position by position

Every Opel VIN built to the modern standard uses the ISO 3779 17-character format, the same international standard used worldwide. The 17 characters split into three blocks:

Here is what each position means specifically on an Opel:

Positions 1-3: World Manufacturer Identifier

See the WMI table above. Because Opel and Vauxhall are the same corporate manufacturer, the WMI alone won’t tell you which badge is on the car. The model-specific characters later in the VIN do that.

Positions 4-8: Vehicle Descriptor Section (VDS)

This block encodes the model line, body style, restraint system, and often the engine family. On modern Opel VINs, this section is where the current-generation platform (for example, Corsa and Astra on the CMP/e-CMP and STLA architectures shared with Peugeot and Citroen) is distinguished from older, GM-era platforms like the Delta or Epsilon.

Position 9: Check digit

The check digit is the most important single character in any VIN. It is calculated from the other 16 characters using a fixed weighting table and modulo-11 math. If even one character of an Opel VIN is mistyped, the check digit will not match, and any compliant decoder or registration lookup will flag the VIN as invalid.

Position 10: Model year

The 10th character maps to a model year on a 30-year cycle. This is a universal ISO convention used worldwide, not a country-specific rule. Skim the chart below to translate yours:

The letters I, O, and Q are never used in any VIN, including Opel, because they look too similar to the digits 1 and 0.

Position 11: Assembly plant

The single character at position 11 identifies the specific factory. Opel’s current-generation cars come from a handful of plants: Rüsselsheim and Eisenach in Germany, Zaragoza in Spain, and, historically, Gliwice in Poland for passenger models before that plant shifted to vans. Because plant-code letters have shifted across GM, PSA, and Stellantis ownership eras, decode the full VIN with the tool above for a precise plant read on your specific car rather than relying on a fixed letter chart.

Positions 12-17: Serial number

The final six characters are the production sequence number stamped on your specific Opel as it rolled off the line. Combined with the previous 11 characters, this makes every Opel VIN globally unique.

Where to find the VIN on an Opel

You can find your Opel VIN in several places. The windscreen and door pillar are the easiest to read; the others are useful when one of those labels has been damaged or replaced.

• Lower corner of the windscreen, visible from outside the car
• VIN plate on the driver’s side door frame or door pillar
• Stamped into the engine bay, typically near the suspension turret or bulkhead
• Your national vehicle registration document (Fahrzeugschein in Germany, carte grise in France, libretto in Italy, permiso de circulacion in Spain)
• Opel’s own vehicle records via a franchised dealer

If your Opel was built before 1981, the chassis number is shorter than 17 characters and follows an older, pre-ISO format. For pre-1981 vehicles, use our classic car VIN decoder guide.

Check Opel recalls and safety information

Opel is a German-registered manufacturer, so vehicle safety recalls are tracked by the Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt (KBA), Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority, which has maintained a public recall database since 2004. Because Opel is sold across many EU countries, a recall issued through the KBA is typically mirrored by each country’s own national transport authority (for example, the equivalent bodies in France, Italy, or Spain), but the KBA record is the manufacturer’s home-country source. The fastest way to check a specific Opel:

1. Decode the VIN with the tool above to confirm the model and model year
2. Cross-reference your vehicle against the KBA recall database, run by Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority
3. Review any open safety actions and contact your nearest Opel dealer or authorised repairer for a free repair

Recalls are repaired free of charge by the manufacturer regardless of the vehicle’s age or ownership history.

Frequently asked questions

How do I decode my Opel VIN?

Type the 17-character VIN from your Opel’s windscreen, door pillar plate, or vehicle registration document into the decoder at the top of this page. Results return in seconds and include make, model, model year, body style, engine family, transmission, plant of origin, and open KBA recalls. No registration is required.

Where is the VIN on my Opel?

The two easiest spots are the lower corner of the windscreen (visible from outside the car) and the VIN plate on the driver’s side door pillar. You’ll also find it printed on your national vehicle registration document if either physical label has worn away or been replaced.

Is Opel the same as Vauxhall?

Yes. Opel and Vauxhall are sister brands under Stellantis (formerly GM, then PSA Group) selling the same engineering under different badges: Opel across continental Europe, Vauxhall in the UK. An Opel Corsa and a Vauxhall Corsa are the same car, and they typically share the same VIN manufacturer code.

Is the Opel VIN decoder free?

Yes. VinDecoderPlus decodes every Opel VIN free of charge with no sign-up or credit card. Full vehicle history reports, including ownership records, accident history, and mileage history, are available as an optional paid upgrade.

What does the VIN tell me about my Opel?

A VIN decode confirms the original factory configuration of your Opel: model, year, body style, engine, transmission, trim level, factory options, and country of origin. It does not record the vehicle’s current mileage, inspection history, or ownership chain. For a full ownership and accident history report, use a paid vehicle history check.

Can an Opel VIN be faked or cloned?

The 17 characters themselves can be retyped, but the check digit at position 9 makes silent tampering nearly impossible: any single-character change breaks the math. If you suspect a cloned VIN on a used Opel you’re considering, our guide how to check if a car is stolen by VIN walks through the next steps.

Decode any Opel VIN free

Type your 17-character Opel VIN into the decoder at the top of this page and get a full breakdown instantly. To learn more about VIN structure in general, see our guides:

• How to read a VIN number
• What every character in a VIN means
• Classic car VIN decoder (pre-1981)
• VIN decoder vs. vehicle history report