The first three characters of a VIN are the World Manufacturer Identifier (WMI). 5XX is assigned to Kia, built in United States (North America). Any VIN that starts with 5XX decodes to Kia. The sample VINs below are checksum-valid and start with 5XX.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| WMI | 5XX (VIN positions 1–3) |
| Manufacturer | Kia |
| Country of assembly | United States |
| Region | North America (from the first character, 5) |
| Models seen here | K5 |
Kia test VINs · Decode a 5XX VIN →
After the 5XX 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.
5XX is a Kia WMI. Every VIN beginning with 5XX was built by Kia and decodes to that make.
The first character 5 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 5XX WMI, so a decoder returns Kia. No real vehicle's VIN is used.