If you are looking to buy a used vehicle then you should check it out before hand. You would usually give a car the once over, check the tyres, look at the body, maybe look under the bonnet just to see if the engine looks clean. One of the things we cannot do just by looking is to check the vehicles previous history.
To find out if the car you are interested in has a hidden history you need to know about then you can carry out a vehicle registration check. A car reg check is a way for you to get information on the history of the car and details about the vehicle just by providing the cars number plate details. Every legal car in the UK is on the DVLA database and several other car databases that organisations and the police use to check data on cars. You too can now get this information so that it helps you spot dodgy vehicles that you may have otherwise ended up unwittingly buying.
There are two types of check that you can do, a car text check and online car check. A car text check allows you to text the registration of the car you are interested in using your mobile phone. You will then get back a brief text message highlighting any problems.
These sorts of check are not very comprehensive and not designed for you to be able to make a safe buying decision but they will allow you to be made instantly aware of any potential problems. You can expect to pay about £3 for this type of check. A car text check is convenient and cheap to do but is not comprehensive.
There is also an online vehicle registration check that you can do. You enter the details into a website and you are provided with an instant comprehensive report. These types of report often come with some sort of guarantee unlike a text check done on your mobile phone.
An online data check will provide you with enough information to be able to make an informed buying decision. This type of report is more expensive but you can get them as low as £5 if you buy a pack of reports. They are not as convenient as using your mobile as you need to be at a computer but you should not commit to buy a used car without first checking it out.