How it works
From a VIN to a decision, in four steps.
No magic and no "over 100 databases". This is exactly what happens when you press Check — including what does not happen.
The process
What actually happens
- (1/4)
Step 1 of 4
You find the VIN
The VIN — vehicle identification number — is the 17-character code the manufacturer assigns under ISO 3779. It identifies that one individual car and, unlike a registration plate, it never changes: not on a change of owner, not on re-registration, not on export. That is why it is the right way to ask about a car's history.
One warning worth the price of the report
If the number on the windscreen does not match the one on the registration document, stop. You do not need a report — you need a different seller.
If all you have is the plate you can start there, but resolving a plate to a VIN depends on each country's rules and is not available everywhere. Where we cannot do it we say so straight away, on the search page, before you pay.
Where to find it
On the registration document, field E. It is the most reliable place to read it, and it doubles as a test: if the seller will not show you the document, you have already learned something.
In the lower corner of the windscreen on the driver's side, on a plate readable from outside the car.
On the driver's door pillar, printed on the same label as the tyre pressures.
Stamped into the bodyshell: in the engine bay, on a suspension turret, or under the carpet on the passenger side, depending on the manufacturer.
- (2/4)
Step 2 of 4
We query the sources
The VIN is first decoded locally to establish identity, manufacturer, country of build, plant and model year. Then queries go out in parallel to the sources that cover that market and that kind of vehicle. Every source has a maximum response time: if it exceeds that, the section stays empty and is marked "No data". We do not wait forever and we do not fill the gap with a plausible-looking value.
We cross-check, we do not stack
When two sources disagree about the same fact, the disagreement is itself a result. An odometer showing 180,000 km in 2021 and 120,000 km in 2023 is not missing data — it is a rollback, and it is exactly what you came here to find.
The process
The verdict, and what you get
- (3/4)
Step 3 of 4
We compute the verdict
The score starts at 100 and comes down. Every step down has a name, a fixed value and the section it came from: no opaque model, no proprietary score. If the total is 62, the lines underneath account for all 38 missing points, one by one.
And if the sources return too little, we compute no score at all.
- (4/4)
Step 4 of 4
You get the report
The report opens in your browser, section by section, with each section's status up front. You can download it as a PDF and take it to the negotiation, or send the link to the seller — which is the best way to use it, because it moves the conversation from anecdotes to documents. The link is on the confirmation page and in the email, and stays valid for 30 days; the PDF you download is yours, with no expiry.
The score
How a number from 0 to 100 is made
The score is a subtraction, not a prediction. It starts at 100 and every problem found removes a specific number of points. These are the real deductions, with their real values.
| What we found | Section | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Vehicle reported stolen | Theft | −60 |
| Branded title: scrapped, deregistered or written off | Title status | −40 |
| Odometer rolled back | Mileage | −35 |
| Lien or hold that blocks transfer of ownership | Liens and holds | −30 |
| Recorded structural damage | Accidents and damage | −25 |
| Active lien that does not block a sale | Liens and holds | −15 |
| Minor recorded incidents | Accidents and damage | up to −15 |
| Commercial use: taxi, private hire, rental, driving school | Commercial use | −12 |
| Failed roadworthiness tests | Roadworthiness tests | up to −12 |
| Manufacturer recalls still open | Recalls | up to −10 |
| Roadworthiness test overdue | Roadworthiness tests | −8 |
| Bounced between dealers in quick succession | Owners | −8 |
| Mileage well above average for its age | Mileage | −6 |
| Five or more owners | Owners | −5 |
| Imported vehicle | Import and export | −4 |
How to read the total
- 85 – 100Excellent
No material anomalies in the sources we were able to reach.
- 70 – 84Solid
Something to raise with the seller, nothing that should make you walk.
- 50 – 69Worth a closer look
There are problems that affect the price. Go into the negotiation with the report in your hand.
- 0 – 49Risky
At least one serious problem. You need a convincing answer before you sign anything.
- n/aUnrated
We do not have enough data to give a number that would mean anything.
Being an import is not a fault in itself, which is why it costs almost nothing. It removes a few points because imported vehicles carry a documented higher rate of odometer tampering, which lowers our confidence in the rest of the report.
When we refuse to give a score
If fewer than 40% of the sections were filled, or if fewer than 2 of the five load-bearing sections — mileage, damage, liens, theft, owners — contain real data, the report returns "Unrated" instead of a number.
A 92 built on three data points is not a good score: it is a meaningless one, and it would make you buy with more confidence than the situation deserves. We would rather tell you we do not know.
The sources
Where the data comes from
We do not publish a count of databases queried, because it is the easiest metric in this industry to inflate — which is precisely why everyone uses it. We publish the kinds of source instead, and the limits of each.
National vehicle registers
Who owns the vehicle, since when, through how many transfers. In Italy that means the Pubblico Registro Automobilistico, reachable through licensed channels.
Lien and encumbrance registers
Mortgages, finance agreements, administrative holds. This is the data that decides whether a transfer of ownership is physically possible at all.
Roadworthiness test authorities
Test outcomes and the mileage recorded at each one. In some countries — Germany, the Netherlands, the UK — this is the best mileage time series that exists anywhere.
Insurers, assessors and repair networks
Reported claims, assessor findings, vehicles written off as uneconomic or unrepairable.
Stolen vehicle databases
Active theft reports, national and cross-border.
Manufacturers and safety authorities
Recall campaigns still open against a specific VIN, not merely against the model.
Auctions, classifieds and dismantlers
Historic listings, photographs, mileages declared at sale, and vehicles that passed through a dismantling yard.
Coverage is not uniform, and we will not pretend otherwise
It depends on the country. German and Dutch inspection data is rich and regular; elsewhere it is fragmentary or simply not commercially available. It also depends on the rules: some registers are public, others are open only to licensed operators and need a contract signed country by country.
And it depends on the individual vehicle. A car that has crossed three countries and five owners leaves far more traces than one kept fifteen years in the same garage. Perversely, the thinnest report is often the one on the car with the quietest history.
That is why the free preview shows you real coverage before payment, and why every section of the report carries the state of its own source.
Today, for a vehicle registered in Italy, 6 of the 19 sections have at least one live source; for the other 13 there is not yet a source we can query, and the report marks them “No data”.
The limits
What a report cannot tell you
This section exists because the category has an expectations problem, and the wrong expectations are created by the people selling. Here is what you will not find in any report — ours or anyone else's.
Current mechanical condition
We do not know whether the clutch is at the end of its life, whether the engine burns oil, whether the turbo whistles or whether the automatic gearbox snatches. No archive knows: you find that out with the car on a lift.
The quality of the repairs
We can tell you there was an incident and how severe it was. We cannot tell you whether it was repaired properly by an approved bodyshop or put back together with filler and paint.
Anything that was never reported
A crash repaired in cash by a local bodyshop, with no insurer and no assessor, exists in no archive at all. That is the structural limit of this product, and it applies to everyone who sells one.
Kilometres removed before the first recorded reading
We reconstruct history from readings that were actually recorded. If an odometer was wound back before anyone ever logged a figure, there is nothing to compare it against.
Whether the seller is honest
The report describes the vehicle, not the person. That said, a seller who reacts badly to a simple request for the VIN is already telling you something.
What is going to break
We make no reliability predictions and you will find none anywhere in the report. Anyone selling you those is selling a model-level statistic dressed up as a forecast about your particular car.
How to use it well
A report is for deciding whether that car is worth going to see, what to ask the seller, and what to negotiate on. It does not replace a test drive or a mechanic's inspection before you sign: it tells you whether that inspection is worth the money and the time it costs.
Try it on a real vehicle
Enter a VIN: the preview is free and tells you what we can find before you spend a euro.