Where to find the VIN on a Dodge Charger LD

Location 1: the dashboard plate, read through the windscreen

Dodge’s 2012 Charger manual says: “The Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) is on the left front corner of the instrument panel. The VIN is visible from outside of the vehicle through the windshield.” Every later Dodge Charger LD manual we read, to 2023, says the same. Dodge’s 2023 drawing (A0901000076US) puts the callout at the foot of the windscreen on the driver’s side of a left-hand-drive car. Stand by the driver’s door and look down through the corner of the glass.

For the Gulf we found only 2015 manuals: standard and high-performance editions, in Arabic and English, on the Mopar Middle East website. Both open with the same two sentences and drawing 010805185, and their customer-assistance pages place the plate “in the upper corner of the instrument panel on the driver’s side”.

Under title 49 of the US Code of Federal Regulations, Part 565 (49 CFR Part 565), a US-market car’s VIN must be legible through the glass from beside the left windscreen pillar. Dodge’s US manuals for 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2019 add the Automobile Information Disclosure Label on a window and, on a US-market car, the registration and title.

Location 2: the right front strut tower under the bonnet (manuals to 2019)

Dodge’s 2012, 2014 and 2015 Charger manuals, and its 2019 manual for the high-performance Charger and Hellcat, give a second place: “The vehicle identification number (VIN) is also located on the right front strut tower inside the engine compartment.” On a left-hand-drive car that is the passenger’s side, under the bonnet. Dodge’s drawings (010840680 in 2012–2015, 0101113893US in 2019) point to a line of characters on the body panel there. Both 2015 Middle East manuals carry the same sentence and drawing; the standard edition captions it “Stamped Vehicle Identification Number Location (VIN)”. Compare it with the dashboard plate.

Dodge’s 2021 and 2023 Charger manuals describe only the dashboard plate and the certification label. No official source we found says whether Chargers built after 2015, other than the 2019 high-performance cars, carry the number on the strut tower. On a later car, a bare strut tower is not proof of tampering; ask Trading Enterprises, with the VIN, where Dodge marks that car.

Location 3: the Vehicle Certification Label at the driver’s door (US-market cars)

Dodge’s 2012 Charger manual says the Vehicle Certification Label is “affixed to the rear of the driver’s door”. From the 2014 manual on, including 2021 and 2023, the label is “affixed to the drivers side B-Pillar or the rear of the driver’s door” (2014 wording), so open the driver’s door and check both the door’s rear edge and the centre pillar it closes against. The label carries the month and year of manufacture and the VIN.

Dodge’s 2013 and 2023 police supplements say only that the label “is attached to the rear of the driver’s door”, documenting no separate VIN place for police cars. It is a US certification label: 49 CFR 567.4 requires it to be fixed so that it cannot be removed without being destroyed or defaced.

No official source we found describes the certification label on a Gulf-market Dodge Charger LD. The 2015 Middle East manuals have no section on it. Both put the tyre placard on “the driver’s side B-Pillar or the rear edge of the driver’s side door”, as the US 2015 manual does. Ask Trading Enterprises, Dodge’s UAE dealer, which labels that VIN should carry before treating a missing or unfamiliar one as a fault.

VINCheckr lists the US recalls that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) records for the model year, not Gulf campaigns or open recalls on this car. NHTSA files police recall 16V-739 separately, under CHARGER POLICE: on a former police car also run NHTSA’s VIN recall search, and for any Charger ask Trading Enterprises with the VIN.

Reading a Charger LD VIN: 2B3 or 2C3, the year letter and the plant

The first three characters of a VIN are the manufacturer identifier. NHTSA’s register lists both 2B3 and 2C3 as passenger-car identifiers under the manufacturer name “FCA CANADA INC.”. In NHTSA’s complaint records, 2011 Dodge Charger LD VINs begin 2B3C and 2012–2023 ones begin 2C3CDX. Character 10 is the model year and character 11 the plant; NHTSA’s decoder reads H on these patterns as Brampton, Canada, where Chrysler said the 2011 Charger was built.

The first character is a region code, not a record of where the car was built or sold: NHTSA says it “generally” identifies a geographic area, and a 2024 NHTSA interpretation letter lets Ford Motor Company use a US-assigned identifier on cars it builds abroad for sale in the US. For the plant, read character 11 and the papers.

These are decoder readings of the patterns shown, not a Dodge rule. Year letters repeat every 30 years, and codes change between years: 2012–2014 Challengers began 2C3CDY, later ones 2C3CDZ. The next Charger, revealed on 5 March 2024, decodes with Windsor as the plant. Put the full VIN into NHTSA’s free decoder to see the trim, engine and drive.

No official source we found sets out how Gulf-market Charger VINs are coded. The VIN alone may not tell a Gulf car from a US import; ask Trading Enterprises what the VIN shows in Dodge’s records, and compare it with the first-registration or import papers.

Three places, one Dodge Charger LD VIN

On a Dodge Charger LD the dashboard plate, the strut-tower number where your year’s manual names one, the door label of a US-market car and the registration card must read the same 17 characters. Compare the label’s month and year of manufacture with the year letter in the VIN’s tenth character; a label dated years away from that model year needs an explanation.

Stop and ask if the dashboard plate is scratched or loose, the strut-tower characters look ground off or freshly painted, the door label looks reprinted, or a police-trim decode meets a seller who says the car was never a fleet car. Get the answers in writing.

If a Charger LD VIN is worn, altered or different from the papers

Every US Dodge Charger manual we read, from 2012 to 2023, and the 2015 Middle East high-performance manual note on the VIN page: “It is illegal to remove or alter the VIN.” The standard 2015 Middle East manual omits that note. No official UAE source we found tells a buyer what to do when a Charger’s VIN is unreadable, looks altered or differs from the registration card. Before any money changes hands, take the car to the police or the traffic authority of the emirate where it is registered and ask how they want it examined. Do not order a replacement plate or label yourself.

In Dubai, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) issues a Technical Vehicle Status Report on a registered used car, including ownership history, if the owner agrees to disclose the data; the RTA says it does not include accident data. Ask the seller to request one and compare it with the car.

How to check a US car’s history in the UAE