Car History Check

Car History Check

Every single day hundreds of vehicles are stolen throughout the UK, a significant amount of which are sold on to unsuspecting buyers. Regrettably, anyone who buys a stolen car will almost certainly lose both the vehicle and their money because it continues to be the property of the owner. More and more, crooks are also ‘cloning’ vehicles, where by they switch the identity of a stolen car with that of a legitimate one using false documentation.

Outstanding Finance

24 in every 100 vehicles checked out by HPI will still be subject to an outstanding finance agreement. Individuals that purchase a vehicle that is still on finance have unknowingly paid for a car which is still owned by the finance company, who could claim it back at any time while the finance agreement is still. Furthermore, any person that attempts to sell on a car which has finance outstanding is breaking the law – even if they have no knowledge of the agreement, as they are simply not the lawful owner of the vehicle (the finance company is).

HPI uses the UK’s most accurate and complete database of finance agreements, which holds over 7 million current records.

Stolen vehicles

Approximately 30 vehicles a day are identified as stolen by the HPI Check. By sourcing its data from the Police National Computer, the HPI Check will inform you if the car you are looking at is currently recorded as stolen.

The HPI Check will not provide details of vehicles that have been recorded as stolen but have subsequently been recovered without damage. If the vehicle has been recovered and written off by an insurance company due to the theft, this will be moved from the stolen register and show on the write off/condition alert register.

Insurance write-off

A car may very well look all shiny and new, but the paintwork might very well be hiding a vehicle that has been declared an insurance write-off. Whilst some of these cars can in fact be repaired and returned safely to the road, others are only fit for scrapheap. The HPI Check not only identifies if a car has been written-off, but also which category of write-off, assisting buyers in making an informed decision about their purchase.

Clocked Cars

With modern day digital odometers now prevalent, clocking a car to adjust its mileage has never been simplier and easier for crooks to add hundreds, or even thousands, of pounds to a cars asking price as the old fashioned tell-tale indicators of damage to the odometer will not be noticeable. The HPI Check will check a car’s mileage against the National Mileage Register (NMR) which is made up of over 135 million mileage record data and will advise a car buyer if there is a mileage discrepancy.

UK consumers purchase 3.6 million used cars from dealers every year, spending £24 billion in the process but end up losing an estimated £85 million per year in connection with used car buying problems, including clocking and the fraudulant disclosing of vehicle histories.

An HPI Check will confirm the vehicle description and whether it is currently recorded as stolen, written-off, has been clocked or is subject to outstanding finance. All information is also covered by the HPI Guarantee, which provides up to £30,000 financial reimbursement in the event of the data held by HPI being inaccurate, and also includes protection against buying a cloned vehicle – the only history check to do so.