Free Car Check
A free car check is the quickest way to confirm the basic facts about a UK vehicle before you take a longer look. Enter the registration above and RegRadar pulls live data from the DVLA Vehicle Enquiry Service and the DVSA MOT history API in seconds — no signup, no card, no commitment.
What you get for free
Every free RegRadar check returns the make, model, colour, fuel type, engine size, year of manufacture, CO2 emissions, current tax status, MOT status and the full MOT testing history including recorded mileages, advisories and failures. That is enough to flag obvious problems — an expired MOT, a SORN'd vehicle, a mileage that hasn't moved in years — without spending a penny.
When a free check is enough
If you are sanity-checking a car you already own, looking up a friend's reg, or scoping out a forecourt before you visit, the free check usually answers your question. The same is true for very low-value vehicles where the cost of a paid report would outweigh the risk.
When you should upgrade
Anything you are paying real money for deserves a paid history report. The free check cannot tell you whether a finance company still owns the car, whether it has been recorded as stolen, written off by an insurer, scrapped, exported, or had its mileage flagged as inconsistent against the wider dealer-network database. Those checks live behind the £9.99 premium report.
How RegRadar's free check works
We call the official UK government APIs in real time. There is no overnight cache, no third-party scraping, and no scraped seller adverts in the free tier. If the DVLA does not have a record for the plate, we will tell you so immediately rather than guess.
What free checks cannot tell you
No free service in the UK has access to MIAFTR (the insurance industry's write-off register), the Police National Computer's stolen markers, or the finance industry's HP/PCP markers. These are commercial datasets — anyone offering them for free is either bluffing or breaking their data licence. Treat that as a red flag.
Frequently asked questions
Is the free car check really free?
Yes. No card, no email, no signup. Run as many free checks as you like, subject to fair-use rate limits to keep the service fast for everyone.
Do I need to register an account?
No. The free check returns instantly. You only need an account if you choose to buy a premium report so we can store your purchase.
Will the seller know I checked their car?
No. RegRadar does not contact the keeper or seller, and DVLA lookups are anonymous. Sellers cannot see who has run a check on their plate.
What if the car doesn't appear in the database?
If the DVLA returns no record we will tell you. The most common causes are a mistyped plate, a very new registration, or a vehicle that has been exported.