The first three characters of a VIN are the World Manufacturer Identifier (WMI). 3FA is assigned to Ford, built in Mexico (North America). Any VIN that starts with 3FA decodes to Ford. The sample VINs below are checksum-valid and start with 3FA.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| WMI | 3FA (VIN positions 1–3) |
| Manufacturer | Ford |
| Country of assembly | Mexico |
| Region | North America (from the first character, 3) |
| Models seen here | Fusion |
Ford test VINs · Decode a 3FA VIN →
After the 3FA 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.
3FA is a Ford WMI. Every VIN beginning with 3FA was built by Ford and decodes to that make.
The first character 3 places the manufacturer in Mexico (North America region) under the VIN standard.
No. They are synthetically generated but checksum-valid and use the real 3FA WMI, so a decoder returns Ford. No real vehicle's VIN is used.