MOT history for your car

[aly-g]

Tried this website yesterday and thought it might be of interest to you all , I wish this site was available before I bought my car it would have given me hints on poor maintenance in its past life !  https://www.check-mot.service.gov.uk/

 

Allan

[Verbout]

Its been up and running for quite a while and has been posted before.  

[aly-g]

I didn't realise that it's been running for quite a while, I only came across it while researching to buy a car for my granddaughter ,  I think it's such a good site for anyone looking to buy a second hand car, how long has this much detail been available  ? 

 

Allan

[Hitby]

You might like http://regisearch.co.uk/

I believe a guy on Pistonheads created it. You can get the full tax, mot status and mot history in one place. Really useful!

[aly-g]

Hi Dan, yes that is an even better site, many thanks ,

 

Allan

[Linas.P]

The only problem I have with all the sites is that they do not show the history if number plate was changed e.g. if "private" plate was used you will not see the history for that bit. So before buying car I still advise to buy full report for like £2.99, which will include outstanding finance, previous plates, insurance write-off etc.

Obviously, they really help and I these ones are the ones I check before anything else. If you can see many repeating advisories on MOT it is clear car was run on tight budget.

[scudney]

yes it does,mine is on a private plate and it shows the full m.o.t history

[rayaans]

2 hours ago, Linas.P said:

The only problem I have with all the sites is that they do not show the history if number plate was changed e.g. if "private" plate was used you will not see the history for that bit. So before buying car I still advise to buy full report for like £2.99, which will include outstanding finance, previous plates, insurance write-off etc.

Obviously, they really help and I these ones are the ones I check before anything else. If you can see many repeating advisories on MOT it is clear car was run on tight budget.

It shows the full history regardless of number plate changes - all my cars have been on private plates and if I put in the original reg, it shows the MOT when I had it done too.

[Gramera flash]

My full history is shown and I have a private plate

[ahmedali44]

Site is really good before u buy car can check mot his for any long term advisories 

[Linas.P]

41 minutes ago, rayaans said:

It shows the full history regardless of number plate changes - all my cars have been on private plates and if I put in the original reg, it shows the MOT when I had it done too.

No it doesn't for mine. And if I search by previous Reg, that it doesn't found anything. 

[Verbout]

Shows full history for my daughters car thats been on a private plate for several years.

[rayaans]

2 hours ago, Linas.P said:

No it doesn't for mine. And if I search by previous Reg, that it doesn't found anything. 

It does depend on when it was done and whether they were uploaded onto the database to be fair. 

Some companies like Kwik Fit started doing it before it was required

[RUFFNECK]

The thing thats missing also is which test station was used that would be a bit of good info.

[Verbout]

On 15 July 2016 at 9:48 PM, RUFFNECK said:

The thing thats missing also is which test station was used that would be a bit of good info.

Why?

[EuroFighter]

Well, although all MOT testers/centres should uphold the highest standards, dodgy Dave's MOT centre might be too willing to let there mates car 'pass' whereas a more stringent MOT tester/centre (e.g. Dealerships) might be stricter - I guess it provides reassurances.

Kwik-Fit, Halfords etc. make money by failing MOTs as they charge for fixes to pass, hence why they have 'free' or really low price MOTs to draw the punters in.

Best thing to do is take it to a council run MOT centre as they are there to only test your car and not repair it - they generally don't do repairs, so there's no vested interest to fail you in the hope you'll spend. (although they charge the full test fee).

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-mot

[Bluesman]

With public access to the MOT register it will also become impossible for Dodgy Dave and all his mates to clock cars as they are beginning to find out.

Cant think why this facility was not made earlier.

[Bluesman]

They wont be able to get away with it in the way you suggest. These guys like to take tens of thousands of miles off and it will soon register on the MOT register that something is wrong. What I would like to see is investigations by DVLA when cars turn up with suspicious mileage, especially if the same names keep popping up with them.

It would be impossible to come up with a system that couldn't be tampered with, there is always someone who can come up with a solution to get round it. Bank cards are a case in point. Ever since bank cards first came out the banks have said its impossible to to crack the security on their latest card  then go and stick their heads in the sand while the criminals fund their lavish lifestyle on other peoples money.

[Shahpor]

You mean Car Giant? Most of their cars come with warrantied mileages, so you can take it back if you found it was clocked.

The problem with your example is doing 40k a year is quite rare.  The average is still around 10k.  So how much you going reduce that by?  5k?  That wouldn't effect the cars value that much and wouldn't be worth the risk of getting caught.

[aly-g]

The mileage on most modern cars is not as important as : wear on steering wheel, wear on pedal rubbers, wear on seats , along with checking the engine oil colour and smell, are the original tyres on the car or a mixture of different tyres amongst the usual check to be done before the car is purchased .

Allan

[mikeyv]

15 hours ago, Shahpor said:

You mean Car Giant? Most of their cars come with warrantied mileages, so you can take it back if you found it was clocked.

The problem with your example is doing 40k a year is quite rare.  The average is still around 10k.  So how much you going reduce that by?  5k?  That wouldn't effect the cars value that much and wouldn't be worth the risk of getting caught.

The auctions are full of 100,000 milers around the 3 year old mark.

A lot of those could shed 50,000 miles without raising any eyebrows, particularly as they have no mot records yet.

[jackcramerr]

I do not think it is easy to clock. If it is, someone please give me a name.

Maybe with old cars. Not a chance with new LCD display type ones.

[Bluesman]

25 minutes ago, jackcramerr said:

I do not think it is easy to clock. If it is, someone please give me a name.

Maybe with old cars. Not a chance with new LCD display type ones.

If you know your way around the engine management systems then it a piece of cake.

Check out You Tubes there are loads of posts on how to do it.

 

[Linas.P]

All cars mileage can be changed... There are always back door for legitimate mile correction after speedo replacement, it is just matter of time when it gets to the hands of dodgy garages. And as well there are people who specialise in cracking the ECU or whatever are used for odometer if there is no official software to change the numbers. It is not much different from unlocking network-locked phone.

In other hand I don't think mileage really matters, odometer was really put in car not to give people bargain power over high miles car and make it worthless (kind of promoting consumption), but rather to track when you need to do service. The higher is the mileage the longer is the list of parts to be replaced. There are many myths what is reasonable car mileage and what is not, and I personally know many people who believe that car after certain mileage is almost for scrap (generally like 60k)... while in reality mileage represents just fraction of the car condition.

I almost believe that odometer should be taken of the car or reset to 0 after each service and that would eliminate the need of cheating it. Many people are so afraid for high miles car for no reason.. there could be the car with 40k on the clock and without any service done and generally poorly maintained, or one with 200k and all service done in time and in better overall shape. Odometer reading is just so big psychological pressure on the seller and buyer, so one has to reduce the price because other is not willing to pay for the car just because of some meaningless numbers on the dash. Yet cheating and changing the numbers are just simple fraud, nothing else and I do not support it.. 

[Linas.P]

On 7/19/2016 at 5:50 PM, piasek said:

That's when you can expect some of the major components like clutch, turbo, etc to fail and why price of these cars are lower.

So that is my point - what determines car value is the condition of these components, not the mileage by itself. Here comes the pressure - if you have 100k+ car with all above replaced and fixed, the potential buyers still going to try to bargain it. Essentially, there is no point to fix these components on high miles cars as, because you will not get you money back selling the car or if you did you have huge pressure to "clock" the car to show its "actual condition".

Simply - buying the car is very complex matter involving a lot of knowledge and many people who knows little about the cars judges only on mileage as that is the only thing they understand.

This is really of topic, but I believe it should be criminal negligence no to change certain parts or maintain the car, so that one can safely assume all the necessary maintenance is done and the mileage has no meaning. As well the parts can be given individual warranties and mileages after which they should be replaced... but that is in ideal world isn't it?