Used car buyer’s tool · free
Price the repairs before you buy
Enter the reg from the advert. We read the car’s full MOT history and price every repair it’s carrying, in pounds, for that exact model — so you know what the car really costs before you offer.
Official DVSA MOT dataAdvisories priced in £Any UK reg, no sign-up
Every MOT advisory on a car for sale is a repair bill the seller is quietly handing to the next owner — worn discs, a corroded spring, tyres near the limit. The history is free, official, and the seller cannot edit it. Priced up, it becomes the one thing that makes a discount arithmetic rather than haggling.
£550+
of queued repairs is what four ordinary advisories add up to on a mid-priced hatchback
Free
and public — you need only the reg from the advert, and the seller never knows you looked
2005
is how far the record goes back, so on most cars you see the whole life story
What the check reads, and what we add
Any free MOT checker will show you the raw history. None of them answer the question a buyer actually has: what is all this going to cost me?
| What the record shows | What it tells a buyer | What we add |
|---|---|---|
| Pass and fail results per year | How the car has been looked after — whether it scrapes through or sails through | Failure reasons matched to repair categories and prices |
| Advisories on each test | Faults noted but not fixed — the next owner’s shopping list | Each advisory priced for this model, totalled into one figure |
| Mileage at every test | Whether the odometer story adds up year to year | A flag when mileage falls or jumps implausibly between tests |
| Test dates and gaps | Periods the car sat untested — off the road, or driven illegally | Context: what long gaps typically mean and what to ask |
The tester’s language, translated into pounds
MOT testers write in a formal shorthand that undersells the cost. “Slight play” sounds harmless; it can be a three-figure bill. And they stack — three small advisories routinely total more than one scary-sounding one.
| Advisory wording | Plain English | Typical cost |
|---|---|---|
| “Brake disc worn, pitted or scored” | Discs, and almost certainly pads, due soon | £180–£460 per axle |
| “Coil spring corroded” | Spring weakened by rust; can snap without warning | £130–£320 |
| “Suspension arm has slight play” | A worn bush or joint — confirm which before agreeing | £140–£280 |
| “Wheel bearing has slight play” | Bearing on its way out; gets louder, then dangerous | £120–£300 |
| “Tyre worn close to legal limit” | Budget a tyre within months — check all four | £60–£120 each |
| “Exhaust has a minor leak” | A joint or section blowing; leaks only grow | £60–£300 |
| “Oil leak, but not excessive” | Find the source before it finds your wallet | £150–£800 |
| “Corrosion within 30cm of a mounting” | Structural rust — the one that can end a cheap car | Inspect first |
Independent garage prices, parts and labour. Main dealers typically charge around 50% more. These are estimates — final quotes come from garages. Enter the reg above and each line gets priced for that specific car instead of a range. The advisory decoder covers all sixteen phrases.
Five red flags in an MOT history
The advisories tell you what the car needs. The pattern tells you how it was owned — and that is the more useful signal.
The same advisory, year after year
A corroded brake pipe advised three MOTs running means the owner ignored a known fault for three years, and tells you how the car was cared for generally. Assume everything invisible got the same treatment. This is the strongest single signal in any history.
Mileage that doesn’t add up
The recorded figure should climb steadily. A number that drops between tests, or a car that suddenly slows from 12,000 to 1,000 miles a year late in life, deserves hard questions. The history makes clocking visible — which is why you check before viewing, not after.
A fail followed by a same-day pass
Often innocent — a bulb or a wiper fixed on the spot. But a fail on brakes or suspension that passes hours later means the repair was done at speed and at minimum cost. Ask what was fitted and whether there is an invoice.
Long gaps between tests
A car untested for eighteen months either sat off the road, which is fine if the seller can say why, or was driven without an MOT, which is not. Either way tyres, battery and brakes may have aged badly standing still. A gap followed by a fresh MOT just before sale is the classic tidy-up pattern.
A brand-new MOT used as a selling point
Twelve months’ MOT sounds generous, but the interesting part is the test before it: what was advised, and whether it was fixed or has simply not failed yet. An MOT is a floor, not a bill of health — it never checks the clutch, the cambelt or the gearbox.
Turning the history into money off
Sellers price the car in the advert; almost none price the advisories. That gap is your negotiation. Total the outstanding items, show your working, and make the discount feel like arithmetic rather than haggling — a specific printed number is far harder to argue with than “will you take a bit less?”.
Worked example — family hatchback advertised at £4,900
£550 – £1,320 of queued work
- Front discs and pads, “worn, pitted”£180 – £460
- Nearside coil spring, “corroded”£130 – £320
- Two tyres “close to legal limit”£120 – £240
- Wheel bearing, “slight play”£120 – £300
Even settling mid-way saves several hundred pounds, for ten minutes of reading. If the seller says a garage looked at it and it’s fine — fine costs nothing to prove. Ask for the invoice or a note from the garage. No paperwork, and the advisory stands.
What this check can’t tell you
Worth being straight about, because the gaps are where used-car money actually gets lost.
Anything the MOT doesn’t test. The clutch, gearbox, cambelt, air conditioning and most engine internals sit outside the test entirely. A spotless history says nothing about a slipping clutch or an overdue cambelt — that is what the test drive and the service history are for. Our service guide covers what a full history should look like.
Outstanding finance, theft and write-offs. That is provenance data, not MOT data, and this tool does not read it. Before money changes hands on a private sale, a paid provenance check is worth its fee — a car with finance owing can be repossessed from you even though you paid for it.
Whether the seller fixed things between tests. Repairs done between MOTs appear nowhere in the record, and that cuts both ways: an advisory may already be sorted (ask for the invoice), and a fault may have appeared since. The history is the car’s CV, not its diary.
If the maths still isn’t adding up, run it the other way — our worth-fixing calculator works for buyers too. When queued repairs pass half the asking price, you are not buying a car, you are buying a project.
Five-minute checks at the viewing
The history check is homework; the viewing is the exam. Match the VIN on the windscreen and door pillar to the V5C, and the seller’s name and address to the document — mismatches mean walk away.
Start the engine from stone cold. A car already warmed up when you arrive is a classic tell, so ask the seller not to run it beforehand. Watch the exhaust on start-up, then try full-lock turns and firm braking on the test drive.
Bring the priced advisory list with you. It tells you exactly which corner of the car to crouch next to, and exactly what to say once you have looked. If a noise turns up that isn’t on the list, our symptom checker prices the likely causes cheapest first.
Used car check FAQ
How do I check a used car before buying it?
Three layers, in order: the free MOT history for condition and mileage, a paid provenance check for finance, theft and write-offs, and a viewing with a cold start and test drive. The MOT history comes first because it costs nothing and decides whether the car is worth your petrol to go and see.
Is a used car MOT check free?
Yes — MOT history is public DVSA data and checking it costs nothing, here or on the official government service. What we add on top, also free, is the pricing: each advisory and failure mapped to a typical repair cost for that exact model, totalled into a negotiation figure.
What are MOT advisories?
Faults the tester noticed that aren’t yet bad enough to fail — worn discs, corroded springs, tyres near the limit. Nothing forces the owner to fix them, so on a car for sale they are usually still there. Treat every open advisory as a bill the seller is quietly handing to you.
Should I buy a car with advisories on its MOT?
Often yes. Advisories are normal on any car over a few years old, and priced correctly they are a discount lever rather than a dealbreaker. The ones that matter are structural corrosion, brake pipes, and anything advised repeatedly across several years. Total them, knock the figure off your offer, and budget to fix them early.
How much should I knock off the price for advisories?
Price each one as a real repair — typically £180–£460 for discs and pads per axle, £130–£320 for a coil spring, £60–£120 per tyre — and open the negotiation with the full total in writing. Expect to settle somewhere between half and all of it; even the low end usually beats any round-number discount you would otherwise have asked for.
Can an MOT history check show if a car has been clocked?
It is the best free clocking detector there is: mileage is recorded at every test, so a reading that falls between years, or annual mileage that implausibly collapses late in the car’s life, shows up immediately. It cannot catch clocking done before the first MOT or between two tests — but most crude clocking trips over the test record.
Should I buy a car that failed its last MOT?
A failure that was repaired and retested is fine — cars fail on routine items constantly. Be more careful when the sale follows a failure with no retest, since you would be buying an unroadworthy car and trailering it home, or when the failure was structural corrosion on a low-value car. Price the repair list first, then decide.
Does a clean MOT history mean the car is good?
It means the car met minimum legal roadworthiness once a year — a floor, not a bill of health. The MOT never checks the clutch, gearbox, cambelt or air conditioning, and says nothing about servicing. A clean history plus a stamped service book is a good sign; a clean history alone is half the picture.
What do “nearside” and “offside” mean on an MOT?
Nearside is the passenger side, nearest the kerb in the UK; offside is the driver’s side. So “nearside front tyre worn” means front-left. It matters at the viewing: the history tells you exactly which corner to crouch next to, and uneven wear side to side can point at alignment or suspension.
Can I check the MOT history of any car?
Yes — any UK-registered car, using just the registration from the advert. You don’t need the V5C document reference or the seller’s permission, and the seller can’t see that you’ve checked. Tests are on record back to 2005, so on most cars you’ll see the full life story.
Does the MOT check show outstanding finance or if a car is stolen?
No — that is provenance data held by finance and insurance databases, not the DVSA. For a private sale it is worth paying a few pounds for a provenance check before money changes hands: a car with outstanding finance can legally be repossessed from you, and no MOT history will warn you.
What’s a fair mileage for a used car?
Around 7,000 to 10,000 miles a year is typical in the UK, so a ten-year-old car on 80,000 is normal rather than high. Pattern beats total: steady annual mileage with a consistent test record is healthier than low mileage from years of short trips, which quietly punishes clutches, batteries and particulate filters.