{"id":4559,"date":"2020-07-17T16:01:04","date_gmt":"2020-07-17T16:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carexamer.com\/blog\/?p=4559"},"modified":"2026-03-03T16:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T16:53:10","slug":"types-of-car-history-how-to-find-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carexamer.com\/blog\/types-of-car-history-how-to-find-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Types of Car History: How to Find Them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/path><\/svg><\/span><\/span>Estimated reading time: <\/span>5<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can tell a huge amount of information about a vehicle from the history that comes along with it. There’s all kinds of data out there about what every car on the road has been through in some way or another and it all goes a seriously long way into giving you an accurate image of what you’re actually working with. Being able to use it all, however, needs a very specific set of skill, knowledge, or services to find out. To help make it easier to find the type of car history you’re looking for, we’ve put together this useful guide on where it all is.\u00a0 Consumer refers to car history check process as hpi (it’s a brand and doesn’t describe the check it self) Let’s go through what types of car history is out there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MOT history <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The most common and most easily accessible form of history to research is with your MOT history<\/a>. MOTs are something that every single car on the road needs to have with it, and as a result, there\u2019s always an easily accessible gold mine of info waiting to be seen along with it, since every year’s data since 2005 is in there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are multiple ways to look at this data as well.\u00a0We have a free tool\u00a0here that can be used pulling info from\u00a0government official sources, and\u00a0we look at advisories<\/a>\u00a0as well which can help if you\u2019re not familiar.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Service History <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The second most commonly sought after piece of information usually comes alongside this as service history, and this is actually easier history to find usually on the car’s person or with the owner. It should all be in the car\u2019s documentation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some cases, however, that’s not the case. Service history isn’t mandatory and for the most part, isn’t accessible online either. You would really need to aks the registered owner or in very rare cases the\u00a0DVLA (for a \u00a35 fee)<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s also worth noting here that if you’re buying your used car from a dealer, this should be advertised somewhere on the vehicle’s information as required by law (saying something like part service history, full-service history, or otherwise). 
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Criminal History <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Just like people can, vehicles can also be subject to crimes as well. We\u2019re not looking at things like vandalism here, but theft and fraud more than anything are what you need to be on the lookout for. There are a few different things that you need to do to get this information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check the vehicles information against the DVLA <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The initial thing that you need to do is to check the information that you do have access to against that of the DVLA<\/a>. That\u2019s using more services like ours as well as any other resources you have access to like similar car history services<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Look at: <\/p>\n\n\n\n