As many as one in three used cars is hiding some sort of a secret. Some of these can be innocent, such as a change of registration number, but some problems can be much bigger, such as the car having been stolen, crashed, clocked, or still being subject to outstanding finance. Buy a car affected by any of these and it will cause you huge amounts of grief and heartache further down the line, which is why you need to invest in a vehicle history check.
Just looking at a car won’t tell you whether it’s been stolen or is still owned by a finance company, but a vehicle history check can because it quizzes a load of databases that are out of reach to you as a car buyer. FirstCar has teamed up with Vehicle Smart to offer you a basic vehicle history check for just £2.99, or a more advanced check for £9.99. Either of these could turn out to be the best investment you ever make if you’re buying a second-hand car.
We’ve put together a separate article for you on how a vehicle history check could save you a lot of hassle, and potentially a ton of cash too. It guides you through all of the things that a check can highlight, with even the cheaper option of the two being anything but basic. For example, it’ll tell you whether the car has been stolen, written off or had a change of registration number or exterior colour at any point. It’ll also tell you whether the car has ever been logged as scrapped or exported, how long the previous owner had the car, and what its engine and chassis numbers should be, so that you can check that they’re correct.
What the basic check doesn’t include is any information about whether the car is subject to any outstanding finance. This is incredibly important because it’s not that unusual for a car to be sold by someone when it isn’t theirs to sell, because it’s been bought on finance. Until everything is paid in full it’s the finance company that owns the car. If you then buy the car because you haven’t taken out a full history check, you could find that the finance company comes after you to take its car back, leaving you with no car and no money either.
As you can see, not only is a Vehicle Smart history check great value, but it’s also very easy to buy. All you need to do is enter the registration number of the car on this page and you’ll be able to get a load of key information for free, including the car’s MoT history and how many miles it’s done at each MoT test. You can then pay £2.99 for a basic vehicle history check, or £9.99 for the advanced option which will give you ultimate peace of mind.
