What to check before buying a used car

Before you travel: two free records, five minutes

Both of these need only the registration number, and you can run them before you reply to the advert. Ask the seller for the registration, the make and the model, which is what GOV.UK tells you to ask for.

The DVLA vehicle enquiry gives you the tax rate and expiry, SORN status, date of first registration, the date the log book was last issued, year of manufacture, weight, engine size, fuel type, CO2 figure, real driving emissions level, European emissions status and export marker. Read that list against the advert. A car advertised as a 2019 model that DVLA first registered in 2017 is not a lie you have to argue about, it is a mismatch you can walk away from.

The DVSA recall check tells you whether the manufacturer has recalled the vehicle over a serious safety problem, and shows which recalls have not been checked or fixed. For a car, the registration number is enough.

• DVLA vehicle enquiry: free, no sign-in, returns tax status and expiry, first registration date, last V5C issue date, engine size, fuel and CO2.
• DVSA recall check: free, shows recalls the manufacturer has issued and whether they are outstanding.
• What none of them return: the current keeper's name and address. You have to write to DVLA for that, and you need a reason.

At the kerb: the paperwork, before the paintwork

Ask for the V5C before you look at the car. GOV.UK is direct about this: you should not buy a vehicle that does not have one. If the seller says it is in the post, the sensible answer is that you will come back when it arrives.

Two things on the document matter more than anything else on it. The first is the serial number. If it falls in the range BG8229501 to BG9999030, or BI2305501 to BI2800000, the V5C might be stolen, and the GOV.UK instruction is to call the police as soon as it is safe to do so. The second is the name and address of the registered keeper. If they are not the person standing in front of you, you need a straight answer about why, and a seller who says they are selling it for a friend or a relative is a seller you cannot check.

Then match the document to the metal. The vehicle identification number is stamped on the car itself, usually visible through the base of the windscreen and repeated on a plate in the door aperture or under the bonnet. It has to match the V5C character for character. Look at the stamping itself as well as the digits: scratches, filler, mismatched fonts and a rivet that does not match the others are worth more than the number.

Cross-check the date the log book was last issued, which the DVLA enquiry gives you free. A log book issued a fortnight ago on a car being sold in a hurry is not proof of anything, but it is the single most common signature of a cloned vehicle and it deserves an explanation.

• V5C serial in BG8229501 to BG9999030 or BI2305501 to BI2800000: call the police.
• Keeper name and address on the V5C must match the seller and, ideally, where you are standing.
• Vehicle identification number on the car must match the V5C exactly, and the stamping must look untouched.
• Recent log book issue date on a car being sold quickly needs an explanation you believe.

The car itself, in the order that finds faults fastest

Insist on a cold start. A warmed engine hides the noises that only appear on a cold one, which is reason enough to arrange a second visit. Listen for a rattle in the first few seconds, watch the exhaust, and look at the coolant and the oil once it has settled.

Tyres next, because they are the cheapest thing on the car to check and the most expensive thing to get wrong. Regulation 27 of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 requires at least 1.6mm of tread throughout a continuous band comprising the central three quarters of the breadth of tread, round the entire outer circumference. Look for uneven wear across the width of each tyre, which points at alignment or worn suspension rather than at the tyre, and check that both tyres on an axle are the same type.

Then the parts of the car that decide the size of the next bill. Kneel down and look along the sills and the rear arches for bubbling under the paint. Look under the boot floor and the bonnet for ripples, fresh underseal or paint overspray on rubber seals, all of which mean repaired accident damage. Put every electrical item through its cycle, including the air conditioning, the windows, the heated seats and the tailgate. Turn the ignition on and check the warning lamps light and then go out, because a bulb that never lights has often been removed to hide a fault.

Drive it for at least twenty minutes, including a stretch above 50mph and a full-lock manoeuvre in both directions. Brake hard once where it is safe. Feel for a pull, a judder through the pedal, a knock over a bump and a gearchange that hesitates. Turn the radio off for the whole drive.

• Cold start, engine off before you arrive. Refuse a warm car and come back.
• Tread at least 1.6mm across the central three quarters, all the way round, with even wear.
• Sills, arches, boot floor, bonnet shut lines and seals for corrosion or repair.
• Every electrical item, and every warning lamp lighting then going out.
• Twenty minutes minimum, above 50mph, full lock both ways, one hard stop, radio off.

What each check actually rules out

Each step closes off a different way of losing money, so you can stop as soon as one fails rather than working through the rest out of politeness.

The DVLA enquiry rules out a misdescribed car and tells you what it will cost to tax. The recall check rules out an unfixed safety fault the manufacturer will put right for nothing. The V5C and identification number checks rule out the two frauds that cost you the entire purchase price rather than the price of a repair, which are a cloned car and a car being sold by somebody who does not own it.

The physical inspection rules out nothing. It finds things, which is a different job, and the one part of the list where paying a professional usually beats the fee.

What the whole list costs

Two of the checks are free, permanently and without a sign-up: the DVLA vehicle enquiry and the DVSA recall check. Nobody should charge you for those and any site that does is reselling a free government service.

A paid provenance check is the only way to reach outstanding finance, insurance write-off records and stolen markers. HPI listed its full check at £19.99 on the day this guide was written. That is a commercial price set by a commercial company, not a government fee, and the providers change them, so treat it as an order of magnitude rather than a quote.

If the seller has lost the log book, a replacement V5C costs £25, and registering a vehicle in your name without one using form V62 also costs £25. A pre-purchase inspection is the one cost here that nobody publishes centrally, so ask for the price in writing and check whether it includes a road test and a report you can show the seller.

• DVLA vehicle enquiry and DVSA recall check: free.
• Paid provenance check for finance, write-off and stolen markers: £19.99 for the HPI full check when checked on 30 July 2026.
• Replacement V5C, or registering the car with a V62 because there is no V5C: £25 each.
• Independent pre-purchase inspection: priced by the provider, no published national figure.

Where the free record stops, and what that means for you

Four things decide a used car purchase and none of them are in public data. Whether money is still owed on it. Whether an insurer has already declared it a total loss. Whether it is recorded as stolen. Whether the log book in your hand is genuine.

The first three sit on registers that only paid providers can query. The fourth is the one you can do yourself, for nothing, in the two minutes it takes to read a document properly against the car parked behind it.

This matters more in a private sale, because under section 14 of the Sale of Goods Act 1979 the implied term that goods are of satisfactory quality applies only where the seller sells in the course of a business. A private seller has to describe the car accurately, and little else.