Checking a car for involvement in an accident
Checking the car's participation in accidents and traffic accidents
Checking the car's participation in accidents and traffic accidents
As practice shows, more than 75% of vehicles offered for sale have been in an accident at least once. But the seller often hides this fact so as not to lose money. Therefore, before concluding a deal, it is recommended to check the car for accidents. Check the car for an accident by VIN or state license. number in just 5 minutes using the Autocode service.
How to find out if a car has been in an accident
If you decide to purchase a used car, be sure to check the selected vehicle in advance. This way you will avoid empty views (which is especially important if the car is located in another region) or you will be able to bargain based on the results of the inspection. You can find out whether a car has been in an accident by its VIN or state registration number. number online.
What other information can you get:
- Number of owners
- Mileage
- Presence of encumbrances
- Being hijacked
- History of fines
- Cost of compulsory motor insurance, etc.
With all this data it will be much easier to make a choice.
Why is it important to check your car for accidents?
Denis Lukin, auto expert
“It is necessary to have your car damaged in an accident not only because you don’t want to overpay for a damaged car. Deception is an unpleasant thing, but it’s one thing to simply have a painted bumper, on which one day the varnish begins to peel off and the paint and putty fall off. It’s another matter if the car has been in a serious accident and is welded from several parts, or the geometry of the body has not been completely straightened, and therefore its structure is weakened. The car can be torn apart while driving. If two parts are welded, the airbags may not deploy during an accident or may deploy randomly without any collision. Therefore, checking a car for accidents before purchasing is the first and most important necessity.”
Dmitry, did not check the car before purchasing
“I purchased a one-year-old Kia Sportage in excellent condition and with low mileage. I was incredibly happy! A little later, while driving in the car, something began to tap and noises appeared. A few more months later, when replacing the wheels, I saw cracks on the bottom. I looked under the engine and there were dents on the crankcase protection. When I took it off, I realized that almost everything inside was cracked, as if from a good blow. And from above the car looks like new. It is necessary to do an examination, and this costs a lot. In the salon, of course, they say that everything was intact when it was sold. And you can't prove anything. Looks like the repairs will cost me a pretty penny. Or you’ll have to sell the car at half the price.” I haven't decided yet. I still had to check the car for accidents online in the showroom.”
Mikhail, didn’t check the car before buying
“Two years ago I bought a car in Moscow. When they began to conduct an inspection with the seller, it was already dark outside. I didn’t know how to check the car otherwise. We entered into a simple written purchase and sale agreement. In general, I saw that the car was damaged already at home. There was hidden damage on the car - the gearbox and the left side of the car were broken. While driving, you can hear the suspension cracking. There is not a word about this in the DCP. The seller says he didn't know about the damage. I am the third owner according to documents, I found and contacted the first owner. He said that he sold the car to a dealer in a very bad condition. I really want to return the money, but the reseller has disappeared. Until he is found, the issue with the car will not be resolved.”
Why is it better to get your car in an accident using Autocode?
Most online services do not allow you to check whether a car is damaged or not without a VIN code. This confuses those who are faced with buying a used car for the first time. On the Autocode portal, it is possible to both check a car for an accident by vin, and check only by state number.
What other advantages of the service are:
- Checking cars for accidents from any region;
- Request by state number, vin code and body number;
- Generating a full report in one click;
- Convenient mobile application, you can take it with you to the transaction;
- It has been operating on the market for more than 7 years, thousands of drivers have already appreciated all the advantages of the service.
Separately, it should be noted that since 2017, information on a Japanese car can be accessed on Autocode. Previously, this information could only be found through the traffic police using the body number (remember that cars from the land of the rising sun do not have a VIN code).
The report is compiled on the basis of data from government and commercial sources, including: checking the car for accidents on the basis of the traffic police, executive authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, judicial authorities, large insurance companies, etc. Thus, you receive data about any officially registered incident: date, location, type of accident.
Checking accidents by VIN or state number on the portal is much faster than searching for data on several sites. By requesting a full report on the Autocode website online, you can be sure that you will not make a mistake with your choice.
Checking a car for an accident
Checking a car for accidents is something that should not be neglected when purchasing a used vehicle. Thanks to the online service "AutoHistory" you can find out whether the car was involved in traffic accidents, what damage it received, and also see photos from the scene of the accident (not always available). Thanks to photographs, information such as the degree of damage received, damage to the engine, chassis or body becomes available.
Why is this information needed?
If the car was involved in traffic accidents, then this is a direct indicator of a decrease in selling value. Moreover, despite the restoration work carried out, the seller must indicate that the car was damaged. This information will certainly put off many buyers, but will attract resellers demanding lower prices.
You need to check the car for accidents before buying, so as not to discover an unpleasant surprise under the hood later. If the traffic accident was minor, then there is no need to worry, especially if repairs and restoration work are carried out in a timely manner.
How to find out if a car has been in an accident?
You can check a vehicle for an accident using the VIN code through the State Traffic Inspectorate. And here there are two options:
- Contact the department directly and request information about whether or not the vehicle has been involved in accidents. Information is provided free of charge, but for quite a long time due to waiting in queues and wasting time on requests.
- In an accident according to the state. number, VIN number or chassis, you can check any car on the State Traffic Inspectorate website. But this method also has its drawbacks. First of all, the imperfection of the system, which often experiences failures. Plus, the information is provided for a relatively short period of time – since 2015.
How to check?
Checking your car for an accident through AutoHistory is quick and easy. All that is needed for this is the state. number or VIN of the car that needs to be punched.
How to check a car: you need to insert the number into the form, and then click “Check”. A few minutes after payment, you will receive a full report on the desired car by email.
From the report you can find out the date and exact time when the accident with the vehicle being checked was recorded, its type and the region in which the incident occurred.
It also happens when the traffic police database does not contain information about whether any of the vehicles under investigation took part in an accident. However, this does not mean that the car is not damaged. Don't let your guard down - before purchasing, you should spend a little time thoroughly checking the car for damage.
How it works?
Checking a car for an accident by VIN and license plate number is possible thanks to the interaction of the Autocode online service with databases from the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate, ROSSTAT, VAS RF, FSSP, RASA and NBKI, which allow you to find out all the information about the car of interest:
- car history;
- legal purity;
- general information and detailed configuration of the model;
- technical inspection information;
- exact mileage;
- average market price and other information.
The information that can be obtained through the service is more than enough to make the final decision - buy a new one or look for another car.
Why is this beneficial?
Checking a car for an accident through our service is quite simple. You get rid of the need to personally contact government agencies. It is beneficial to have your car checked for accidents for several reasons:
- a few minutes to enter data;
- 1-15 minutes – waiting for verification;
- a few minutes to study the report.
The time spent at this stage will save a lot of effort and nerves in the future. If an inattentive buyer purchased a damaged car without knowing it, the blame lies not only with the seller, but also with the new owner, who did not bother to check the history of the car. Be more careful and know how to check a car before purchasing through the AutoHistory online service!
Checking whether a car was involved in an accident
Sometimes when purchasing a car, it becomes necessary to check the car for any registered road accidents. This is done in order not to fall for the scam of scammers and to buy a good car instead of a beautifully restored, battered wreck.
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And here the main question becomes: how to do this, and which method will be more reliable? In this article you can find a detailed and detailed answer to this question.
Verification methods
There are actually not many ways to check, and they are not particularly difficult.
So, there are 2 methods of checking for an accident:
- Checking against the traffic police traffic police database.
- Checking against the insurance company database.
The only disadvantage of these checks is that only facts recorded by office employees are included in the database. That is, if the seller had situations where the issue was resolved without the “cops” or “insurers,” then this is more difficult to identify.
Through the traffic police
Today, before purchasing a car, our government agencies provide such a service as checking the “cleanliness” of the car. That is, if you wish, you can find out all the official information and history of the item being purchased.
More specifically, using this method, you can find out:
- Debts and unpaid fines imposed on the car.
- Number of previous owners and information about them.
- External and technical characteristics of the machine
- Number of technical inspections, dates of inspections and final conclusions
- Participation in traffic accidents. Severity of damage.
Also, an online service has been developed for checking through the traffic police database. Here you can carry out exactly the same diagnostics, only without leaving your home and using your home computer. This is a great option for the buyer. Before a personal inspection, you can understand whether it is worth going to it at all.
Through an insurance company
Not long ago, insurers created a common database of RSA OSAGO. It lists cars that have ever used insurance services. Since, according to the law, these conditions are mandatory for the owner of the car, we can say that 85% of Russian cars are listed there.
But here everything is a little more complicated. Due to the fact that access to this register is open only to insurers, you can only find out the necessary information by contacting them. In principle, there is nothing unrealistic about this. Typically, insurance companies treat every request of their client with trepidation.
Other verification methods
There are many online services that can be used to determine whether a car was involved in an accident or not.
Among them are the following resources: Autocode, Vincar, Carfax and Vinonline.
A resource of Russian origin, with which you can check your car for damage. You can do this in two ways:
- By state number.
- By vin number.
As a result, complete information that is available on the Internet in general should be provided. This includes: credit information, data on accidents involving a car, repairs after accidents, customs information and other information about the car.
Vincar service
Data search through the service occurs only based on the vehicle’s VIN code. The main block of information for Vincara is the registers of the traffic police and insurance services.
Cars are included in this register within two weeks after the incident is recorded by specialists.
There have been cases when the site crashed and provided incorrect information.
The easiest, most convenient online Carfax service
All detailed instructions are written on the website in an accessible form.
Here, even the information found is generated into a separate report for printing. Just like on Autocode, the car is checked using state marks and the VIN number of the body. But the app sometimes doesn't work properly.
As the name implies, the check on the site is performed using the vehicle’s VIN code. By the way, if this option does not work, you can check using the body number or the assigned chassis number of the vehicle. In addition to the fact of damage, the service shows the degree of its complexity.
The website has a detailed user manual.
Recommendations
Testing a new car can take place not only in these ways. For example, every experienced or even novice driver should have his own mechanic or a person whom he trusts to repair his car. Also, it could just be a friend who is well versed in vehicle repair and will help with the inspection.
Many drivers take their potential purchase to a trusted service station, where specialists perform an independent inspection.
It’s quite possible to determine this point by eye: you need to pay attention to body gaps, chips, cracks and other irregularities. First of all, they appear on painted parts.
For such cases, a device was invented - a thickness gauge. Thanks to it, you can accurately determine whether the car was involved in an accident and which element was painted. Also, with certain knowledge, one can conclude how badly it was broken, whether the geometry was damaged and how severely the body was deformed.
It is highly not recommended to practice this method for those for whom this car will be the first.
Among all the methods, the most optimal and most reliable is checking through the traffic police. They provide the most accurate and verified information from the depths of the state register.
We advise you to approach the issue of vehicle inspection with the utmost care and attention. It is better to fully study the car, carefully inspect every millimeter of the body, check for serviceability, and only then conclude a purchase and sale transaction, so as not to regret the choice you made.
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