Data Sources & Methodology

The free instant check is powered by official UK Government APIs and requires no account.

• DVSA MOT History API — every MOT test: date, result, recorded mileage, advisories and failure reasons. Authoritative UK MOT record, updated daily.
• DVLA vehicle identity — make, model, colour, fuel type, engine size, year of manufacture, tax status and tax due date.

The Full Report (£5.97) adds licensed provenance data from Experian. VRMCheck is an authorised reseller.

• Outstanding finance — HP & PCP agreements secured against the vehicle.
• Write-off category — insurance write-off records (Cat A, B, S, N).
• Stolen markers — police-reported stolen status.
• Keeper history — previous keeper count and keeper-change dates.
• Plate changes — previous registration plates.
• Valuation — retail, private-clean, trade and part-exchange value figures.

Paid provenance data is provided by Experian. Valuation data is provided via OneAutoAPI (Brego).

SmartValuation is a paid add-on (£2.99) that returns a 0–100 sell-now-vs-wait score and a SELL NOW / NEUTRAL / HOLD verdict. The model combines:

• Depreciation curve — a static per-category, per-age depreciation model producing an estimated annual loss percentage.
• UK seasonality index — a month-by-month demand multiplier used to identify the best month to sell and the current month's demand.
• Mileage adjustment — the vehicle's recorded mileage compared against the category average.

Output includes a 30/60/90-day projected value line and a best-month-to-sell callout. Results are cached for 24 hours per vehicle.

SmartValuation is estimated based on market averages using static depreciation & seasonality models. Not a guaranteed offer or valuation.

Market sentiment score

The market sentiment score compares the vehicle's calculated fair value against current live asking prices on UK platforms (AutoTrader, CarGurus and others, aggregated via Brego) to indicate whether a listed vehicle is priced competitively, overpriced or a good deal.