Redefining the Vehicle Check

Vehicle checks explained

A vehicle history check is a report that tells you about a particular vehicle’s past, including its repair, services and ownership history. If you are looking to buy a used car, it can reveal crucial information that may very well influence your final purchase decision. Of course, you can buy a second-hand car without conducting a full vehicle history check, but you do so at your own risk. While a car may seem perfectly normal on the surface, there could be issues with it that aren’t readily apparent (and that the seller won’t tell you about). That could include if a car:

• is reported as stolen car – a vehicle check will access the Police National Computer to see if a car has been recorded as a stolen vehicle
• bears outstanding finance – that is, money still to be paid on the vehicle. You risk losing the car as well as the funds needed to settle the balance as the vehicle is owned by the finance company.
• is written off – in other words, damaged to the point where the insurance company now considers it scrap.
• has a transferred number plate – while a couple of number plate changes isn’t something to worry about, a number plate that has been transferred several times may indicate someone is trying to cover up something about the car’s past.
• has been ‘clocked’ – a term for when a car’s odometer has been forcibly turned back. Owners may do this to make the car appear more valuable. Fortunately, a vehicle history check includes a check with the National Mileage Register to verify its actual mileage

The limits of a cheap or free car check

The internet makes it easy to check certain vehicle data for free. However, the information provided by free car checkers is very limited. You can get a full MOT history and mot status from DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency) through their DVLA check. However, paid for services can offer more comprehensive reports at low prices. While these might cover most if not all of the points covered above, there’s actually more you can discover about a particular used car. 

That involves not only looking at a car’s past but also assessing its future, a process we’ve perfected here at Car Guide to bring an entirely new service to the car checking marketplace with more vehicle information than any other vehicle check on the market.

The new and improved way to check vehicle history

At Car Guide, we’ve come up with an entirely new way to help used car buyers make the best purchase decision possible. We believe our product is ahead of Total Car Check, AA Car Check and Rapid Car Check.

Drawing on machine learning, we’ve built an artificial-intelligence solution that can make accurate predictions about a car’s future while also providing a fully comprehensive history check. 

Unlike other platforms, Car Guide is loaded with over 46 million vehicles and has access to a data bank of over 700 million MOT data points from vehicles across the UK. These have been amassed over the last 15 years and newly performed MOTs are added to the platform each day. That makes all the difference in being able to more precisely predict future component failure based on factors such as make or model, age, mileage, engine size, and previous MOT history. 

The result? You’ll get a much better picture of what kind of repairs or servicing that vehicle might require in future. You can also see a breakdown of predicted running costs on a monthly basis to get an idea of how much a car will cost to run. 

If you want the full picture when it comes to a used car’s historical and future performance, there’s only one platform to sign up to, and that’s Car Guide. Sign up, for peace of mind and to uncover any hidden history, for a free account today and start comparing and checking used vehicles. All you need is either the registration number or vin.

You can view parts of the sample report here.