How to find out the history of a vehicle.

mrsrickp, Oct 1, 6:35pm
Hi there, a quick question. How does one find out the history, ie. how many owners etc of a vehicle when it has been deregistered then re registered with a new number plate. Do we put in the chassis number somewhere and details will come up. Any advice is welcomed. We have just purchase another vehicle and we are interested in its history. Does the "how many owners" come through on paperwork somewhere when you do the change of ownership. It has been 12 years since we have purchased another car! Thanks in advance.

saxman99, Oct 1, 7:11pm
The papers you will eventually get in the mail will show how many times and when it has changed hands, but not who has owned it.

If you put the new plate into carjam and pay for the report it should know all of its previous plates and ownership history.

mrsrickp, Oct 1, 7:22pm
Thanks saxman99. much appreciated for your info! Might just do a carjam report.

gsimpson, Oct 2, 3:04am
I contacted manufacturer and they gave me the full history from new even though it was imported from UK.

westwyn, Oct 2, 9:15am
Actually, saxman99, the newer "registration papers" don't give a full history any more- only the more recent transactions, and even then, no detail.

The best way is to pay for a full Motorweb report (I prefer them to CarJam, I find their data is somehow more "up to date" even though they all run off the MVR LanData database. This will show the full previous history of the vehicle back into the late Eighties I do believe (earlier records are sketchy, many were never transferred over from the "old" manual database) including the "previous" plate history.

It won't show the names of the private owners thought- Privacy Act requirements won't allow them to be disclosed to you, in most cases anyway!

saxman99, Oct 2, 9:19am
Ok thanks for that. I bought a 1991 car the other day and the papers showed all ownership changes back to when the car was new. Just figured that's what you got.

tigertim20, Oct 2, 9:37am
new plates may not mean dereg'd.

Ive ad to order new plates for a motorcycle for various reasons, including some a$$hole thinking it would be funny to bend my number plate in half - it snapped in two when I attempted straighten it.
or for personal plates added / removed

etc etc

westwyn, Apr 2, 5:23pm
Cheers saxman99, the MVR pre the late Eighties is a sketchy thing- I'm not sure of the exact year, but somewhere around then is when they've drawn the line between the "old" transactions and the "new" ones which have made it online. And even then I think a few older ones may have made it "through". But predate that, and it's by no means a complete record anymore- shame, really!