I know all about the up and up because I have a euro car. The badge on the left hand side of the dash is a substitute vin plate for us standard, its not made up its the real vin. The vin should be located in the door jam of the driver side and also under the hood near the radiator. It will not come up in US because its not a US vin you will have to contact germany to get more information about the car. You will have to supply them with proof of ownership of the car. The russian decoder works quite well for a german based car. Any other questions feel free to ask me.