$ ecc query --domain freevehiclehistory.co.uk --category vehicle history
› freevehiclehistory.co.uk is the cheap first pass. Enter a registration, see whether the advert matches the record, and decide whether the car is worth a journey — before anyone spends money on a full report or a tank of fuel. Free vehicle history check. DVSA MOT data, tax status and vehicle spec. Full history from £1.99. The sections below cover what the report contains, what it cannot see, and how to use it in a real negotiation.
Data sourced from DVLA, MIAFTR, contracted stolen-vehicle data and the UK lender register at lookup time.
Typical lookup completes in under one second from the UK.
Built and supported in the UK as part of the consumer side of the network.
If the report shows nothing of concern, ask to see the V5C in person and compare the VIN on the document to the one stamped on the chassis and printed on the dash. If the report flags something, raise it directly: a Category N write-off is not necessarily a deal-breaker, but a seller who claims a car has no history when MIAFTR shows otherwise is telling you something important about the rest of the conversation.
A missing year in the test record usually means one of three things: the vehicle was SORN'd, it was off the road awaiting repair, or it was tested late. The check returns SORN periods alongside the test dates so the two can be reconciled. A gap with no SORN declaration is the one worth asking about.
The history record does not include unreported damage, cash repairs, modifications fitted between MOTs, or work undertaken under warranty without an MOT log. Treat history data as the public, verifiable trail; treat the seller's own service record and an in-person inspection as the private, unverifiable trail that fills the gaps.
/ Brand consolidation
freevehiclehistory.co.uk is now part of Expert Car Check — the consolidated UK vehicle-data platform that several of these older brands have joined. The data sources are unchanged: DVLA's vehicle record, DVSA's MOT history, MIAFTR for write-offs, contracted UK data providers for stolen-vehicle markers and the UK lender register for outstanding finance. The team and the support contact are the same. What's changed is that the work that was previously spread across several smaller brands now sits in one place, which keeps response times tight and the underlying registers maintained against current DVLA schemas. Bookmarks and historic links to freevehiclehistory.co.uk continue to resolve here. If you were referred to freevehiclehistory.co.uk by a previous report, broker or print listing, this is the right page — there is no further redirect to chase.
Visit expertcarcheck.com →/ Common questions
No. Service records are held by garages and manufacturers, not by DVLA, and are not part of any vehicle history report. Ask the seller for the service book and look for stamped, dated entries with mileage.
The vehicle was first registered outside the UK and later imported. Imported vehicles can be entirely sound, but the absence of pre-import history is itself worth recording in the buyer's notes.
It shows the recorded number of previous keepers and the date each took ownership. It does not return the names or addresses of previous keepers, which are protected under data-protection law.
It provides strong evidence but not proof. The recorded figures are entered by testers at each test, so a consistent upward sequence is reassuring, while gaps between tests remain unverified.
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One field. A typical lookup completes in under a second, using the same UK vehicle records relied on by trade buyers and insurers.