Vehicle history reports

A vehicle history report differs from an HPI check in emphasis. HPI is about the legal and financial backstop: is the car stolen, is there finance, has an insurer written it off. History is about the trail: how many keepers, what the MOT advisories say, whether the mileage moves in a plausible line, whether the vehicle has been off the road for long stretches that don't reconcile with any insurance event.

The brands in this hub serve different angles of that trail. Free Car History and Free Vehicle Info focus on the no-cost summary — make, model, MOT, tax, basic provenance. Full Car History and Complete Vehicle Check return the depth. Vehicle Dossier and Car Past Report wrap the same data in a forensic, audit-ready PDF format suitable for sharing with an insurer, broker or solicitor.

For most second-hand UK purchases, the history report is the second document you read after the V5C. Used well, it's the prompt for the questions you raise with the seller. Used badly, it's a tick-box that gets filed away unread.