Where to find the VIN on a Nissan Kicks P15

Location 1: the plate where the Kicks P15 windscreen meets the dashboard

Start outside the Nissan Kicks P15, at the driver’s door. Nissan’s US owner’s manuals list the VIN as “attached to the top of the instrument panel on the driver’s side”, and the identification drawing shows a small plate with two fixings at the foot of the windscreen, just beside the windscreen pillar, drawn as seen from outside through the glass. Nissan says this number “is the identification for your vehicle and is used in the vehicle registration”. On a left-hand-drive Kicks registered in the UAE, look down through the lower left corner of the windscreen.

The drawing is identical in all seven manuals from 2018 to 2024 and in the 2025 Kicks Play manual, so the 2021 facelift did not move it. It is a sketch Nissan also prints for the Altima and the Sentra, so read it as a guide to the area rather than a picture of a Kicks dashboard. For vehicles made for the US market, Part 565 of Title 49 of the US Code of Federal Regulations (49 CFR Part 565) requires the VIN to be readable through the glazing by someone standing outside beside the left windscreen pillar.

Location 2: the chassis number behind the Kicks P15 engine

The second Nissan Kicks P15 VIN is in the engine bay. Nissan heads it “vehicle identification number (chassis number)” and says only that it “is located as shown”. The drawing looks into the engine bay from the front with the bonnet open: an arrow points up at a marked patch on the bulkhead, the wall between the engine bay and the cabin, just under the panel at the foot of the windscreen and behind the engine. No side is written on the drawing, so search the whole width of the bulkhead.

Unlike the plate sketch, this drawing appears only in the Kicks manuals we read, and it is the same from 2018 to 2024 and on the 2025 Kicks Play. Open the bonnet with the engine off and cool, and take a torch. The same pages show an engine serial number “stamped on the engine as shown”: that is a different number, not the VIN.

Location 3: the US certification label at the foot of the driver’s centre pillar

A US-market Nissan Kicks P15 repeats the VIN on the Federal/Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (F.M.V.S.S./C.M.V.S.S.) certification label. The specification pages place it “on the center pillar between the driver’s side front and rear doors”, and the drawing, with the driver’s door open and the seat cushion in view, shows it low on the pillar just above the sill. Nissan says the label contains the “month and year of manufacture, Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), etc.” Every P15 manual uses the same drawing, which Nissan also prints for the Altima saloon, so it shows the area rather than a Kicks door opening.

The label is a US requirement, not a Nissan habit: 49 CFR 567.4 requires a manufacturer to fix it next to the driver’s seating position on vehicles certified for the US. A Gulf-market Kicks may have no such label.

Decoding a Kicks VIN: 3N1CP5, the Kicks Play and the all-new 2025 Kicks

A Nissan Kicks P15 VIN has 17 characters, and the first three are the manufacturer identifier, usually called the world manufacturer identifier (WMI). The register of the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) gives 3N1 to Nissan Mexicana for passenger cars, and every partial VIN in NHTSA’s 2018–2024 Kicks complaint records, bar two mistyped ones, begins 3N1CP5. The first character is a region code, not proof of origin: in a 2024 interpretation letter, NHTSA said a manufacturer identifier need not show the country where a vehicle was built.

Under the US rules, position 10 is the model year and position 11 the plant. In those complaint records the year letters run from J (2018) to R (2024), and position 11 is always L. Given partial patterns rather than real VINs, NHTSA’s Product Information Catalog and Vehicle Listing (vPIC) service reads 3N1CP5 with an L as a 1.6-litre Kicks and gives the plant as Aguascalientes, Mexico, and Nissan Mexicana’s 2021 release names Aguascalientes as the Kicks plant.

These are decoder readings, not a rule Nissan publishes, so confirm the model year on the US title. NHTSA registers 3N8 to Nissan Mexicana as a multipurpose passenger vehicle code, and its decoder files the all-new car under it. That car’s 2025 manual keeps the dashboard-plate drawing but has new chassis-number and certification-label drawings, so Locations 2 and 3 on this page do not apply to it.

No official source we found shows where the VIN is marked on a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) market Kicks, or how its VIN begins. Nissan Middle East’s quick reference guide for the Kicks carries the code P15, but it has no VIN page and refers owners to the owner’s manual. If the car was sold new by Nissan’s UAE agent, check the owner’s manual that came with it, or ask the agent (Arabian Automobiles in Dubai, Al Masaood in Abu Dhabi) where the marks should be.

GCC-spec or US-spec: what changes for a UAE buyer

Checking a Kicks P15’s numbers against each other

Write the plate number down, then read the bulkhead and, on a US car, the pillar label, and compare each with the registration card one character at a time. Nissan says the VIN is the number used in the vehicle registration, so a Kicks whose marks disagree cannot be tied to its papers. The label also gives the month and year of manufacture; note it, and ask the seller to explain it if it is far from the model year on the registration card.

Some warning signs are specific to this car. A Kicks sold as a 2018–2024 P15 should not show a 3N8 VIN or an S in position 10, and a US-market car’s pillar label should sit near the sill, where every P15 manual draws it, rather than higher up the pillar, as the P16 manual draws it. Elsewhere, stop if the plate does not sit flat on both fixings, if the bulkhead around the chassis number has been repainted or filled, or if the label is damaged or looks newer than the paint around it, and get the seller’s explanation in writing.

A Kicks P15 VIN that is scratched, painted over or does not match

On a Kicks P15 the chassis number sits on the bulkhead close behind the engine; read it in good light. No official UAE source we found sets out what a buyer should do when that number, or the plate, is unreadable or differs from the registration card. Before any payment, take the car’s papers to the traffic authority of the emirate where the Nissan Kicks P15 is registered, such as the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) in Dubai, or to the police, and follow their answer. The RTA’s Dubai inspection is booked as a mandatory appointment at approved centres, with re-inspection after a fail and an appeal route. A seller who offers to fix the marks first is a reason to walk away: a fresh plate, label or stamp is not a repair.

A Kicks imported from the US also has a paper trail, and every document in it should carry the same VIN: the US title, the shipping and customs papers and any US auction listing. Nissan’s US manual itself says safety and emission rules “vary according to the country” and that “vehicle specifications may differ”, so expect an import’s label and papers to look unlike a Gulf car’s.

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