Honda Civic VIN Decoder: FC, FE and FL Model Codes

A Honda Civic VIN tells you the body, engine family and trim through one five-character model code in positions 4 to 8: FC on the tenth-generation car (we checked the 2019 filing), FE on the 2022-and-newer sedan, FL on the newer hatchback and the Type R. The two characters after those letters carry the trim, and Honda reuses them, so you always read the code against that year's chart. Position 10 is the model year (N is 2022, T is 2026) and position 11 is the factory.

Civic listings get this wrong a lot, mostly because the trims shuffle every couple of years and listing sites guess. We went through Honda's own Part 565 filings in NHTSA's vPIC library on November 8, 2026: the 2019 sedan and coupe, the 2022 sedan, the 2026 sedan, the 2027 hatchback and the 2025 Type R. Everything below is from those filings, and where a year is missing we say so instead of filling the gap.

The Honda layout, in plain terms

Honda prints the pattern as three characters of manufacturer code, a five-character model code, a check digit, the year, the plant and a six-digit serial. On the Civic filings we read, the first three characters split by plant group. The 2026 sedan filing lists 2HG, Honda of Canada Mfg., with plant code H for Alliston, Ontario. The 2027 hatchback filing lists 19X, Honda Development and Manufacturing of America, with plant E for Greensburg, Indiana. The Type R filing lists JHM, Honda Motor Co. in Japan, with plant X for Yorii, Saitama.

So a Civic Type R with a 2HG prefix is wrong on its face, and a sedan with JHM deserves a second look at the VIN plate. That is a two-second check you can do from the listing photos before you drive anywhere.

2019: FC codes and three engines

The 2019 filing covers the tenth-generation sedan and coupe under FC codes. The sedan LX is FC2F6 with the CVT and FC2E6 with the manual. The Sport is FC2F8 and FC2E8. Those use the K20C2, listed at 158 hp. The EX, EX-L and Touring sedans are FC1F3, FC1F7 and FC1F9 with the 1.5-liter turbo (L15B7 or L15BY), listed at 174 hp. The Si sedan is FC1E5 and the Si coupe is FC3A5, both with the 6-speed manual and a 205 hp rating.

The useful bit: FC2 means the non-turbo 2.0 and FC1 means the turbo, at least on the 2019 sedan. That matters if you are worried about the 1.5T oil dilution complaints covered in our Honda 1.5T oil dilution check. An FC2 car is not part of that conversation.

2022: FE arrives, and the turbo moves up

The eleventh-generation sedan switches to FE codes. In the 2022 filing, FE2F2 is the LX and FE2F5 is the Sport, both with the K20C2 listed at 158 hp. FE1F7 is the EX and FE1F9 is the Touring, with the 1.5 turbo listed at 180 hp. There is no EX-L in that 2022 sedan table, so an ad calling a 2022 sedan "EX-L" is either wrong about the year or wrong about the trim.

2026 sedan and 2027 hatchback: same letters, new meanings

Here is where the reuse bites. On the 2026 sedan filing, FE2F2 is still LX and FE2F5 is still Sport, but the engine is now the K20C9, listed at 150 hp. The turbo EX and Touring are gone from that table. FE1E5 is now the Si, with the L15CA and a 200 hp rating and the 6-speed manual. And FE4F8 is the hybrid, listed for both the Sport Hybrid and the Sport Touring Hybrid, with the LFC3 engine at 141 hp plus a 135 kW motor.

Read that last part again. On a 2026 Civic sedan, the VIN model code is the same for the Sport Hybrid and the more expensive Sport Touring Hybrid. You cannot settle that trim from the VIN, so you need the window sticker, the build sheet or the equipment in front of you. It is a frustrating gap, and it is exactly where a seller can round up.

The 2027 hatchback filing does split them. FL2H8 is Sport and FL2H9 is Sport L, both with the K20C9 at 150 hp. FL4H8 is the Hybrid Sport and FL4H9 is the Hybrid Sport Touring with the LFC3. The Type R sits apart as FL5G4 with the K20C1 at 315 hp and a 6-speed manual, so a "Type R" with any other model code is not a Type R.

Year letter, check digit and a free second opinion

Position 10 follows the federal year table in 49 CFR 565.15: K for 2019, N for 2022, S for 2025, T for 2026, V for 2027. Position 9 is a check digit calculated from the rest of the VIN, which is why one mistyped character usually breaks it. Our check digit explainer shows the math if you want to verify it by hand.

NHTSA's free vPIC decoder reads the same filings and should agree with all of the above. If it does not, check the plate photo before anything else. For the rest of Honda's lineup, our Honda VIN decoder covers how the other models use the same scheme.

What a decoded VIN still misses

The model code tells you what Honda built. It does not tell you whether the Si spent two years at track days, whether the hatchback was a rental or whether the title was ever branded. Our used Civic buying guide and used Civic Si guide cover the mechanical side. For history, CARFAX's own retail price sits somewhere around $39.99 to $44.99 per report. We sell licensed CARFAX and AutoCheck reports and have no affiliation with CARFAX, AutoCheck or Experian; recently that has meant roughly $5.50 as a guest, $4.50 as a member, or about $6.75 for both. Prices move, so confirm at checkout, and never accept a seller's PDF in place of a report you ran yourself.

Sources

• Honda 2019 Civic Sedan and Coupe VIN filing (NHTSA vPIC)
• Honda 2022 Civic Sedan VIN filing (NHTSA vPIC)
• Honda 2026 Civic Sedan, Hybrid and Si VIN filing (NHTSA vPIC)
• Honda 2027 Civic Hatchback and Hatchback Hybrid VIN filing (NHTSA vPIC)
• Honda 2025 Civic Type R VIN filing (NHTSA vPIC)
• 49 CFR 565.15: check digit and model year codes