Get a Free Car History Report Before Buying a Car
In our never-ending quest to bring you the most helpful tips and tricks in the known universe, we often update older stories with more accurate information. After all, nothing lasts forever, and life hacks are no exception.
So when we discovered this hack in 2013, we should have known it wouldn’t last long.
Reddit user oinkinstein showed this tip for running a vehicle history report.
- First get the VIN on the car
- Then find dealer autocheck inurl: vin
- Click on the first search result (it now leads to autoexact.com, but this trick works with other sites as well)
- Replace the VIN in the URL with your own. Please note: if there is any other information after the VIN, for example id = ####, just replace the VIN and leave the rest of the information unchanged.
Voila! You will receive an AutoCheck report from Experian with basic vehicle details as well as all reported accidents, name problems, last reported odometer reading and complete vehicle history. Good to know when you are buying a used car.
Lo and behold, this trick has since stopped working. RIP, funny.
So what to do? Well, you can of course pay by ordering an AutoCheck or CarFax report . That’s what the dummies do. Here are some of the free options we discovered thanks to Clark.com :
NICB
The National Insurance Bureau of Crime sounds like the place to call you and ask for your Social Security number or they’ll set the sheriff on you, but this is the real place! A real place that will provide free, albeit relatively meager, services: here you can find out if the car you want to buy was stolen or had an accident . But that’s all. That’s all you get from the National Bureau of Crime Insurance.
CarHistory
Now we say: VehicleHistory can provide you with a much more detailed report including price analysis, cost of ownership, recall history, and sales history.
iSeeCars
With iSeeCars, you get a comprehensive report containing 200 data points, including price history, projected depreciation, dealer scorecard, best times to buy and sell, and more. A lot more. Another 196 points to be exact.