Our history check explained

10/01/07

The motors.co.uk history check explained.
Buying a second-hand car can be risky. For instance, did you know that 500,000 vehicles are so badly damaged each year that their insurers 'write' them off? However, many end up being offered to an unsuspecting buyer: one in 25 cars, to be precise.

What's more, at least 30 people who buy a car today will later discover than it has been stolen and, as such, dsn't belong to them - despite them having paid for it?

But there is a solution. Here at motors.co.uk, we're working hard to ensure that buying and selling is as fuss-free and fun as it can be. And we’re very much aware that your biggest fear is ending up with a car that has a murky past.

Relax. We've made motors.co.uk a safer place to shop. Find your next car and we'll provide a basic history check which promises that it isn't recorded by the police on industry databases as stolen, or that the DVLA has it down as fit only for scrapping.

This service, which only motors.co.uk offers, also helps sellers - because buyers will come to you ready to deal, having cleared a major worry from their minds.

When vehicles are listed with us, we check their history so we can warn you if there's a reason for concern.

Any vehicles listed as stolen on the Police National Computer or recorded by the DVLA as scrapped are never listed on the site.

We also check to see whether a vehicle has been "written off" by an insurer because it has been stolen or crashed. Here it's complicated, so bear with us. There are different write-off categories and cars in Category A or B have damage too serious for them to return to the roads, so we never list them on the site. Cars in Categories C or D can be repaired and re-sold. But we think you should know about their past. Some people are happy to buy such cars if they are roadworthy and the history is reflected in the price.

Imports from outside the European Union are increasingly common (right-hand-drive cars are imported second-hand from Japan, for example) and we believe you should know before you buy. So we check with the DVLA. More importantly, we also check with the DVLA to see whether vehicles have been exported; you should check the history of such cars very carefully.

Important notes:

It costs us money to history check each car and some results are only displayed for our premium dealers (those with whom we have a full advertising relationship).

Please do not rely solely on our history check; we only run cars through the system when they are first listed. Problems may subsequently appear via the databases, but our check won't show these.

Good though it is, our history check ds not ensure there aren't unpaid loan debts secured on the car. There are further risks, too. For the best possible peace of mind, you are strongly advised to carry out a full history and provenance check just before you buy.

Start searching our history checked cars using the search menu on the left hand side of this page.