About MOTBuddy.
Free UK car checks, explained properly.

Why MOTBuddy exists

Buying a used car is one of the biggest purchases most people make, and the information that protects that purchase is scattered across official registers, industry databases and a dozen different websites — most of which charge before they tell you anything. MOTBuddy was built on a simple idea: the public record should be free to read, and the explanation of that record should be written for ordinary buyers, not for the motor trade.

That is why every free check on this site asks for one thing only — the car’s registration number — and nothing else. No account, no email address, no card. The result is the official record, explained: what the MOT history says, when the tax runs out, whether the mileage adds up, and what to look at next.

What you can check here

The site covers 30 free checks, all in one place: MOT checks and full MOT history, car tax checks, vehicle identity and specification checks, VIN and number plate checks, mileage checks, and valuation guidance. Each page answers one question properly, with the official data explained in full, a sample of what the result looks like, and links to the related checks a careful buyer runs next.

Some facts — outstanding finance, insurance write-off records and stolen markers — live on licensed industry registers rather than public ones. Those verdicts sit inside the full report, and every page that touches them says so plainly, rather than pretending a free check can show licensed data.

Where our data comes from

Identity, specification and tax data is sourced from the DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency). MOT status, MOT history, test results, advisories and recorded mileages come from the DVSA (Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency). Where a page refers to write-off, finance or stolen records, the source is the insurance industry’s register, MIAFTR, held on licensed industry databases. Every tool page carries a data-source box naming its sources and the date the information was last reviewed.

What MOTBuddy is not

We are not the DVLA, the DVSA or GOV.UK, and we are not a government service. We cannot change your car’s MOT or tax record, issue a V5C log book, or answer questions about your individual vehicle — those are matters for the DVLA or the DVSA directly, and our pages point you to the official routes where that matters. We are not a car dealer, an insurer or a finance company, and our valuations are estimates from market data, not offers to buy your car.

How we make money

The free checks are free. When a full report is offered, it is paid for by the buyer who orders it — that report covers the licensed industry data (finance, write-off and stolen markers) that no free service can show. There are no subscriptions on the free checks and no charges hidden behind a “free” label.

Our standard

Every page on this site is written to be deeper and more honest than the pages it competes with: verified UK facts only, no invented statistics, the limits of each check stated alongside its strengths, and no claim we cannot support. If a page is wrong, we would rather know than keep it — see our Contact page to tell us.