# Vehicle Specs from the VIN

Source: https://ducted.app/help/kb/vehicle-specs-from-vin
Category: Feeds & Mapping

Dealer exports often leave specs out: no drivetrain column at all, no number of doors, a body style or fuel type missing on some vehicles. On a vehicle project Ducted reads each vehicle's **VIN**, decodes it, and fills those empty fields in your feeds, in each channel's own words. There is nothing to switch on, and it works on every plan.

## What fills in

The decoded specs appear in the feed editor's column picker as their own group, **Vehicle specs (from VIN)**: make, model, year, body class, drive type, fuel type, engine, transmission, number of doors, trim and more. AutoMap sets each one up as the **If empty, use** fallback of the matching template field, which means:

- **Your own column always wins.** The VIN fills a field only for the vehicles your source left empty. A dealer's own model or trim name is never replaced.
- **Transmission comes from the dealer's feed first.** Most VINs do not encode the transmission, so the decoder's answer is only a guess, and a transmission stated in a dealer feed for the same vehicle is used instead.
- **Drivetrain and doors come from the VIN first**, and a value stated in a dealer feed fills in where the decode is blank. Body style and fuel type come from the VIN.

On a feed you built earlier, press **AutoMap**: it adds the VIN fallback to the fields that have none and never changes a mapping you already set. You can also add one by hand in the field inspector with **If empty, use another column**, picking from the VIN group. If you remove a fallback, AutoMap does not add it back.

## In each channel's own words

A decoded spec goes through the same shared vocabulary as your own columns, so "4WD/4-Wheel Drive/4x4" is served as `4X4` on Meta and TikTok, and "Pickup" as `TRUCK` on Meta Automotive Inventory and `truck` on Google Vehicle Listing Ads. The body style also decides the vehicle category: see [Vehicle Categories](https://ducted.app/help/kb/vehicle-categories).

## Which projects

VIN lookup follows the project's **Vertical** (project **Settings** tab):

| Vertical | VIN lookup |
|---|---|
| Automotive, Powersports, RV | On. The VIN column is found by its name or by its values. |
| Marine | On, but boat hull identification numbers (HINs) do not decode. |
| No specific vertical | Only a column named `VIN` or `VehicleVin`, or one marked as the VIN, is read. Set the vertical so nothing is missed. |
| Retail and every other vertical | Off. |

When the vertical is empty, Ducted sets it for you once at least 10 decoded vehicles have a known type and 80% of them point to one vertical; Settings then shows "Set from your vehicles' VINs" under the Vertical dropdown, and you can change it any time; your feeds' health is then rechecked under the new industry. If you clear the vertical yourself, it stays empty. When the vertical you chose does not match what the VINs decode to, Settings suggests one on the same bar ("Set the vertical to Powersports?"). **Use** puts it in the dropdown for you to save; the **X** stops suggesting that vertical for the project, and a vertical you hid is never set for you.

## When the specs arrive

New VINs are decoded a few minutes after a data load, a scheduled refresh or an indexing run brings them in, up to 2,500 vehicles at a time. The rest follow within the hour, and at the latest the next morning. A vehicle whose VIN was decoded before fills in at once.

## On the Health tab

- **Filled from the VIN** - a note saying how many records had which fields completed from the decoded VIN. Information only, nothing to fix.
- **VINs that cannot be decoded** - on a feed that uses the VIN specs, a warning counting the records whose VIN the decoder cannot read: usually a mistyped character or a VIN from outside the US market. You can ignore it like any other warning.

## Limits

- **US-market VINs decode best.** Many vehicles built for other markets decode only partly, and boat hull numbers not at all.
- **Powersports drivetrain is rarely known.** For ATVs, side-by-sides and motorcycles the decode usually has body style, fuel type and engine, but seldom a drivetrain.
- **Only what the VIN can tell.** Prices, mileage, options and condition never come from the VIN.

## Where the data comes from

Specs come from **vPIC**, the free vehicle decoding service of the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Only the VIN, with its model year where your data has one, is sent to it. Decoded specs are kept per VIN, so the same vehicle is not looked up again every time it appears.