Decode Your VIN
Enter your vehicle's VIN code to discover all technical specifications. The VIN consists of 17 alphanumeric characters.
Rolls-Royce Ghost VIN Decoder
Decode any Rolls-Royce Ghost VIN free in under three seconds. Type the 17-character vehicle identification number into the decoder above and pull the generation, model year, engine, body variant, assembly plant, and any open NHTSA recalls. No account, no email gate.
This page is the dedicated Ghost hub: the two generations the car has gone through since 2009, the single World Manufacturer Identifier every genuine Ghost carries, a position-by-position guide built from real decoded VINs, and the spots on the car where the VIN is stamped.
About the Rolls-Royce Ghost
The Ghost was revealed as a concept at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show and went on sale that September as a 2010 model, positioned as Rolls-Royce’s relatively “entry-level” car under BMW ownership. The first generation shared its underlying architecture with the contemporary BMW 7 Series, a steel monocoque platform dressed in Rolls-Royce sheet metal, engineering, and interior. The second generation, which arrived for model year 2021, moved onto Rolls-Royce’s own aluminum spaceframe, the “Architecture of Luxury,” the same platform underpinning the Phantom VIII, Cullinan, and Spectre.
Every Ghost of both generations has come out of Rolls-Royce’s Goodwood plant near Chichester, West Sussex, England, the purpose-built factory and head office BMW opened in 2003 after acquiring the rights to the Rolls-Royce name and losing the historic Crewe factory to Volkswagen along with the Bentley brand. Goodwood has been Rolls-Royce’s only car factory since, and that consistency is confirmed on every VIN gathered for this guide.
| Generation | Years | Platform | Engine | Built at |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st (Series I / Series II) | 2010-2020 | BMW-derived steel monocoque, shared architecture with the F01 7 Series | 6.75L twin-turbo V12 (N74) | Goodwood, England |
| 2nd | 2021-present | Rolls-Royce Architecture of Luxury aluminum spaceframe, shared with Phantom, Cullinan, Spectre | 6.75L twin-turbo V12 (N74B68), plus AWD as standard | Goodwood, England |
A note on the “6.75L” figure: it’s what NHTSA returns for second-generation VINs, but every first-generation Ghost VIN checked here instead returns a computed 6.6L. The N74 V12’s literal displacement is 6,592.5cc, which rounds to 6.6, not 6.75; “6.75-litre” is a nominal figure Rolls-Royce carried over from its V8 naming convention. Same engine family throughout, just reported two ways depending on when the VIN was submitted (more in the FAQ below).
Within second-generation Ghosts, Rolls-Royce also sells a Ghost Extended (long wheelbase) and a Black Badge Ghost (a darker, sportier trim). Both show up distinctly in the VIN, covered below.
Rolls-Royce Ghost WMI codes (positions 1 to 3)
The first three characters of a VIN form the World Manufacturer Identifier, assigned by SAE on behalf of ISO. Every real Ghost VIN gathered for this guide, spanning model years 2010 through 2026 and pulled from dealer listings and auction records, carries the same one:
| WMI | Country | Plant | Ghost generations built here |
|---|---|---|---|
| SCA | United Kingdom | Goodwood (near Chichester, West Sussex) | 1st and 2nd generation, 2010-present |
No other WMI turned up across roughly two dozen real VINs checked, standard, extended, and Black Badge cars included. A VIN advertised as a Ghost that doesn’t start with SCA is not a genuine factory VIN. Decode the complete 17 characters with the tool above to confirm.
How to read a Rolls-Royce Ghost VIN: position by position
Every Ghost built since 2010 uses the 17-character ISO 3779 standard. Here’s what each block decodes to, verified against NHTSA’s vPIC database rather than assumed.
Positions 1 to 3: World Manufacturer Identifier
See the table above. SCA is the only WMI observed on any Ghost, from a 2010 launch-year sedan to a 2026 Ghost Extended. The S identifies the United Kingdom as the country of manufacture, and the rest identifies Rolls-Royce as the manufacturer of a passenger car.
Positions 4 to 8: Vehicle Descriptor Section (VDS)
Rolls-Royce doesn’t publish a public legend for these five characters, so the table below comes entirely from decoding real, verified VINs. The pattern changed more than once over the car’s life:
| VIN example | Model year | Generation | Positions 4-8 | What it corresponds to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SCA664S54AUX48664 | 2010 | 1st gen | 664S4 | Standard-wheelbase Ghost |
| SCA664L56CUX65712 | 2012 | 1st gen | 664L5 | Extended-wheelbase Ghost |
| SCA664S54KUX54675 | 2019 | 1st gen | 664S5 | Standard-wheelbase Ghost |
| SCAFK4C06LU200621 | 2020 | 1st gen, final year | FK4C0 | Ghost / Ghost Black Badge (a distinct internal code from the 664-series cars) |
| SCATV0C03MU204386 | 2021 | 2nd gen | TV0C0 | Standard-wheelbase Ghost |
| SCATV2C03RU223538 | 2024 | 2nd gen | TV2C0 | Ghost Extended |
| SCA13GZ0XTU235386 | 2026 | 2nd gen | 13GZ0 | Standard-wheelbase Ghost, restructured code |
| SCA53GZ00TU235043 | 2026 | 2nd gen | 53GZ0 | Ghost Extended, restructured code |
| SCA33GZ04SU230501 | 2025 | 2nd gen | 33GZ0 | Black Badge Ghost, restructured code |
Two patterns fall out of this. First, on first-generation cars the seventh character (S versus L) reliably flags standard versus extended wheelbase, right up until the final 2020 model year, when at least one Black Badge car used an entirely different FK4C0 block. Second, second-generation cars used a TV0C0 (standard) / TV2C0 (Extended) scheme through at least 2024, then switched to a 13GZ0 / 53GZ0 / 33GZ0 structure by 2025 to 2026, with the fourth character separating standard, Extended, and Black Badge cars. Rolls-Royce hasn’t published that change; this guide caught it by decoding VINs across consecutive model years.
Position 9: Check digit
The ninth character is a computed check digit, calculated from the other 16 characters using a fixed weighting table and modulo-11 math defined in the ISO 3779 standard. It exists purely to catch typos. While researching this page, one dealer-advertised Ghost VIN (a 2017 Black Badge listing) came back from NHTSA flagged as “VIN corrected, error in one position,” almost certainly a mistyped character in the listing rather than a fake VIN.
Position 10: Model year
The 10th character maps to model year on the standard 30-year SAE cycle. The Ghost has been in continuous production since model year 2010, so here’s the complete, gap-free mapping across the relevant span:
| Char | Year | Char | Year | Char | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | 2009 | F | 2015 | M | 2021 |
| A | 2010 | G | 2016 | N | 2022 |
| B | 2011 | H | 2017 | P | 2023 |
| C | 2012 | J | 2018 | R | 2024 |
| D | 2013 | K | 2019 | S | 2025 |
| E | 2014 | L | 2020 | T | 2026 |
The letters I, O, and Q are skipped because they can be misread as 1 and 0. Nearly every character here was confirmed against a real decoded VIN: A through L on genuine first-generation cars from 2010 through the final 2020 model year, and M through T on second-generation cars from 2021 through 2026. No real 2009 model year Ghost VIN turned up in this research; the car launched for sale as a 2010 model, so 9 is included for cycle completeness rather than confirmed by a sample.
Position 11: Assembly plant
A single character identifies the specific factory. For the Ghost, this has been remarkably consistent: every VIN decoded for this guide, across both generations, returns the same code.
| Char | Plant |
|---|---|
| U | Goodwood, England (near Chichester, West Sussex) |
Interestingly, NHTSA’s own PlantCity field isn’t internally consistent here: some decoded VINs (mostly early second-generation cars) return “Chichester,” while others return “Goodwood.” Both refer to the same facility, since the Goodwood plant sits on the Goodwood Estate a few miles outside Chichester, and Rolls-Royce has never built a Ghost anywhere else. The VIN character itself, U, never wavers, even when NHTSA’s plant-city label does.
Positions 12 to 17: Serial number
The final six characters are the production sequence number stamped on your specific car as it left the Goodwood line. Combined with the previous 11 characters, this makes every Ghost VIN globally unique, and it’s the piece of the VIN a title, insurance card, or window sticker will always show in full.
Where to find the VIN on a Rolls-Royce Ghost
- Lower corner of the windshield, visible through the glass from outside the car
- Driver’s side door jamb, on the certification label
- Stamped on a VIN plate in the engine bay
- Vehicle title, registration, and insurance card
- Rolls-Royce’s Whispers ownership app and dealer service records
The windshield and door jamb labels are the fastest to check on a used-car lot or at an auction preview. If you’re buying a Ghost sight unseen, cross-check all of them against the seller’s photos before wiring any money; a mismatch between the windshield VIN and the door jamb VIN is one of the clearest signs of a swapped or cloned identity.
Check Rolls-Royce Ghost recalls and safety information
The Ghost has been the subject of several real NHTSA recall campaigns, confirmed directly against NHTSA’s recall API:
- Campaign 11V522000 (2011), expanded by Campaign 12V166000 (2012): certain 2010-2011 Ghost vehicles with turbocharged engines were recalled because the auxiliary water pump’s circuit board could overheat, creating a smoldering or fire risk.
- Campaign 18V097000 (2018): certain 2018 Ghost vehicles were recalled because the head air bags may have been damaged during assembly and might not fully inflate in a crash. None of the affected cars had reached customers yet.
- Campaign 23V645000 (2023): certain 2021-2023 Ghost vehicles were recalled because the single-layer tempered glass protecting the instrument cluster could break in a crash.
To check whether your specific car has an open campaign:
- Decode the VIN above to confirm the exact model year and generation
- Cross-reference it with NHTSA’s recall database
- Contact your nearest authorized Rolls-Royce dealer for any open campaign repair
Recall repairs are free regardless of the car’s age, mileage, or ownership history.
Frequently asked questions
How do I decode a Rolls-Royce Ghost VIN?
Type the 17-character VIN from the windshield, door jamb, or title into the decoder at the top of this page. Results return in under three seconds and include model year, generation, engine, body variant, plant, and any open NHTSA recalls.
Where is the VIN on a Rolls-Royce Ghost?
The two easiest spots are the lower corner of the windshield, readable from outside the car, and the certification label on the driver’s side door jamb. There’s also a VIN plate in the engine bay you can check against the other two if you suspect a discrepancy.
What does a Ghost VIN starting with SCA mean?
SCA is the World Manufacturer Identifier for Rolls-Royce vehicles built at the Goodwood factory in West Sussex, England. Every Ghost VIN checked for this guide starts with SCA. A listing claiming to be a genuine Ghost with a VIN that starts differently should be treated as suspect until you decode and verify it.
How do I tell which generation my Ghost is from the VIN?
Look at the model year character at position 10 together with the block at positions 4 to 8. Model years 2010 through 2020 (A through L) are first-generation cars on the BMW-derived platform, flagged by a 664S or 664L block. Model years 2021 onward (M through T) are second-generation cars on the Architecture of Luxury spaceframe, flagged by a TV0C/TV2C block through roughly 2024 or a restructured 13GZ/53GZ/33GZ block from 2025 onward. Decoding the full VIN with the tool above will return the generation directly.
Is the Rolls-Royce Ghost VIN decoder really free?
Yes. VinDecoderPlus decodes every Ghost VIN free of charge with no sign-up. The basic decode covers everything the factory encoded into the VIN itself. A full vehicle history report (accident records, odometer history, prior ownership, salvage status) is available as a paid upgrade if you need it.
Can a Rolls-Royce Ghost VIN be faked?
The 17 characters can be reprinted on a fake plate, but the check digit at position 9 catches most single-character typos or alterations through math alone, and the windshield, door jamb, and engine bay VIN plate are all physically tied to the original car. If those three don’t match each other, or the title, treat the sale as high-risk. The guide on how to check if a car is stolen by VIN walks through the steps.
Why do some Ghost VINs decode to a 6.6L engine and others to 6.75L?
Same V12, the N74, badged by Rolls-Royce as “6.75-litre” since launch. NHTSA’s data for first-generation VINs (2010-2020) returns a computed 6.6L, the literal rounding of the engine’s actual 6,592.5cc displacement. Second-generation VINs (2021 onward) instead return 6.75L, matching Rolls-Royce’s nominal figure. Not a different engine, just two numbers reported in the same database depending on when the VIN was submitted.
Decode any Rolls-Royce Ghost VIN free
Type your 17-character Ghost VIN into the decoder at the top of this page for an instant breakdown. To go deeper:
- Rolls-Royce VIN decoder hub for the brand-wide guide
- How to read a VIN number for the general standard
- What every character in a VIN means for a position-by-position reference
- Classic car VIN decoder for older, pre-2010 Rolls-Royce models where standard decoding runs into gaps
- VIN decoder vs. vehicle history report for what a decode covers versus what it doesn’t
- How to check if a car is stolen by VIN for verification steps before you buy
