VIN Check or Vehicle History Report: What Each One Tells You

It is easy to buy the wrong one. A history report tells you what happened to a car. A factory record tells you how it was built.

What a history report covers

A history report is about the car's life after the factory: registrations, previous owners, mileage readings, accident and insurance records, and whether it was stolen or written off. It is the right tool when you want to know whether a car has a past worth worrying about.

What a factory record covers

A factory record is about how the car was built: the exact equipment the factory installed, the code for each item, the build date and the model year. It is the right tool when you want to know whether the car in the advert really has the equipment it claims.

Why you often want both

The two barely overlap. A clean history report will not tell you whether the panoramic roof, the air suspension or the premium sound system in the advert are actually fitted, and an equipment list will not tell you whether the car has been in a crash. On an expensive used car, the pair is what makes the asking price checkable.

Get the factory side by VIN

Enter the 17-character VIN and we return the factory equipment list in plain words. For what the VIN itself encodes, see how to decode a VIN.