The first three characters of a VIN are the World Manufacturer Identifier (WMI). 1FT is assigned to Ford, built in United States (North America). Any VIN that starts with 1FT decodes to Ford. The sample VINs below are checksum-valid and start with 1FT.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| WMI | 1FT (VIN positions 1–3) |
| Manufacturer | Ford |
| Country of assembly | United States |
| Region | North America (from the first character, 1) |
| Models seen here | F-150, F-250, Ranger, Transit |
Ford test VINs · Decode a 1FT VIN →
After the 1FT WMI, positions 4–8 describe the model, body and engine; position 9 is the mod-11 check digit; position 10 is the model year; position 11 is the assembly plant; and positions 12–17 are the serial number. See the full 17-digit VIN format.
1FT is a Ford WMI. Every VIN beginning with 1FT was built by Ford and decodes to that make.
The first character 1 places the manufacturer in United States (North America region) under the VIN standard.
No. They are synthetically generated but checksum-valid and use the real 1FT WMI, so a decoder returns Ford. No real vehicle's VIN is used.