So you’re out looking for that special sports car. You’d love to buy new, but the budget doesn’t stretch that far. No problem, there are lots of used sports cars available.
You find The One. That special sports car you’ve been looking for. In great condition with low mileage, and drives like it’s new. And best of all, at a bargain price. In fact, you cannot believe that this guy is willing to part for her at that price, but he says that he really needs the money, so he’s dropped the price for a quick sale.
No problem, a quick trip to the bank and you’re back to swap a pile of your hard earned cash for the keys. You shake, and drive away happy.
Until you get to the DMV to transfer the registration.
That’s when you get the bad news. That special little sports car you just picked up at a bargain price is so hot you can fry an egg on it. No problem, you tell the police your story, and they go after the guy you bought it from. Except that he cannot be found….
And they still relieve you of the keys to your new baby to return her to her rightful owner. “Dont’ worry, I’m sure that you’ll get your money back when we catch the guy.” they say….
Sucks, huh?
OK, this example may be a lttle far fetched, but similar situatons are occuring all over the country as you read this. Maybe not always a stolen car, but cars with money owning, rebirthed cars that have previously been written off, cars that have suffered flood or major accident damage, etc are being sold by unscrupulous scammers to unsuspecting buyers every day. While not all of these situations will result in you losing all of your purchase price, it certainly pays to know. The more information you have about your prospective purchase, the better placed you are to know what it is really worth. Or even if you are better off walking away from the deal altogether.
But it’s a situation that can be easily avoided.
That’s where the VIN check comes in. The VIN, or vehicle identification number, is a 17 character number that identifes all vehicles uniquely. It is usually found on a plate inside the engine bay. By using this number to run a search on the appropriate database, you can get a pretty complete picture of the history of the vehicle, especially major stuff like is there any money owing on it, has it been written off or suffered major damage, or many other critical events.
Great. How do I perform a VIN check?
The easiest way is to use a website that provides this service. You simply enter the VIN into a form and pay the small fee, usually only about $10-20. A small price to pay for the piece of mind of knowing that there is nothing nasty lurking in the history of the sports car you are thinking of buying. These sites will then search the appropriate databases, and give you a report on the status of the vehicle. The better ones will even give a description of the vehicle, so that you can be sure that the VIN on the car is really it’s original VIN.
To make things easy for you, I’ve compiled a list of webstes that offer this service in many countries.
Click on the flag for your country below to go to a list of web sites that you can use to obtain information about any sports car (or any other road vehicle) you may be thinking of purchasing:
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