Here is a full report on a made-up car. It has one problem to find and a long plate history, so you can see how we explain both, and what to do next.
used-car complaints reached Citizens Advice's Consumer Service in 2023 alone.
Source: Citizens Advice.
MOT tests overall end in an outright fail, across more than 840 million real tests Motoble has analysed.
That's exactly why we built this - so you're making a decision on what's actually on record, not what you can see from the kerb.
At least one thing below needs a closer look before you commit - see the highlighted result below.
No stolen report on record for this vehicle.
This check looks for a live police report against this registration or VIN - not something a private buyer can easily check themselves. It's not an absolute guarantee (a stolen vehicle can be given a false identity, or not have been reported yet), but a clean result rules out the most common, traceable form of it.
The police would have a live report of this vehicle being stolen. Records aren't always updated straight away, so it wouldn't necessarily mean it was stolen right now, but you'd want it fully resolved, and confirmed with the police force named on the record, before going any further.
There's an active finance agreement on record.
A finance agreement is recorded against this vehicle. The finance company and agreement details on record are listed below. Before going any further, confirm the situation in writing with both the seller and the finance company.
Started 12 May 2023
Finance company: EXAMPLE FINANCE CO LTD · 0100 000000
Agreement: EXAMPLE-0001
No finance company would have an agreement recorded against this vehicle, so there'd be nothing outstanding for a seller to settle before a sale.
No insurance write-off recorded for this vehicle.
A write-off marker means an insurer has, at some point, declared the car a total loss - usually after a serious accident, fire, flood, or theft-recovery. A clean result doesn't mean it's never been damaged, of course, but it does mean it hasn't been registered through the insurance system, which would affect its onward value.
An insurer would have declared the car a total loss at some point, usually after a serious accident, fire, flood or theft recovery. That isn't automatically a reason to walk away (plenty of Cat N and Cat S cars are repaired properly and drive perfectly safely), but it's worth understanding what happened and seeing evidence of the repair.
No third party marker flag found.
A third-party risk marker is normally an alert placed on a vehicle or asset history record indicating that an outside organisation or third party has a registered legal interest, ownership dispute, or monitoring claim tied to that asset. A clean result helps rule out that extra category too.
An outside organisation or third party would have registered a legal interest, ownership dispute or monitoring claim on this vehicle's record. Where the category and the third party are given, the report would show them.
No salvage auction record found for this vehicle.
This checks for a specific record of the vehicle being listed at a UK salvage auction: which is a separate piece of evidence from the insurance write-off check above, since a vehicle can appear in salvage auction records even when the write-off itself was handled outside the mainstream insurance system. A clean result here rules out that route too.
The vehicle would have been listed at a UK salvage auction. That's worth treating like an insurance write-off: ask what happened and ask to see evidence of any repair. A damaged and repaired vehicle is almost always worth meaningfully less than one that's never been salvaged, and the auction lot details usually show how it was categorised, plus its condition and mileage at the time.
2 previous keepers on record, last changed 14 June 2024.
A "keeper" is whoever's registered with the DVLA as responsible for the car day-to-day - not necessarily its legal owner (on a finance agreement, for example, the finance company can legally own the car while someone else is its keeper). On its own, this number says very little about the car - some well-cared-for cars have had several keepers, and some poorly-kept ones have had one. But this number can give you a clue as to how often the car has changed hands in the past.
This vehicle has 5 recorded registration plate changes.
This is common - private/cherished plate transfers happen for all sorts of reasons, and can sit on well-looked-after cars just as easily as any other, since a cherished plate is itself an investment. On its own, it isn't a sign of anything wrong with the vehicle. But like all the other information in this report, plate changes can be useful clues to shine a light into the car's past, and are valuable points of conversation to pick up with the seller.
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| 14 September 2022 | MO01BLA → MO01BLB |
| 3 February 2023 | MO01BLB → MO01BLC |
| 21 November 2023 | MO01BLC → MO01BLD |
| 10 June 2024 | MO01BLD → MO01BLF |
| 28 January 2025 | MO01BLF → MO01BLE |
No colour changes recorded for this vehicle.
The stolen, finance, insurance write-off, third party risk marker, salvage, keeper, plate and colour history in this report is currently supplied by Experian.
Motoble presents this data as provided and cannot independently verify or guarantee its accuracy or completeness.
The explanations and help text surrounding the data itself is authored by Motoble.
Should the data above later prove to be wrong. This is Experian's guarantee, not Motoble's - see Experian's own guarantee terms for exactly what's covered and how to claim. Experian may update this document at any time without notice, so if in doubt, check the current version directly at experian.co.uk before you rely on it.
Six passes over the car, in order.
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The MOT and vehicle lookup on Motoble is free, with no account needed, and comes from official government data. A full Confidence Report like this one, with the stolen, finance, write-off and third party risk marker checks, can be added for any vehicle from the same page.
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Varnexity Ltd. Registered in England and Wales, company number 17410354.
Registered with the ICO, registration reference ZC227932.
VAT registration number GB 528 6981 42.
Registered office: 71–75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, United Kingdom, WC2H 9JQ.