Vehicle History Report: All You Need to Know

How old is this car? How many people have used the car before now? Was the car involved in an accident? Why is the owner selling it? What’s the mileage on the vehicle? Are the tires okay? Will I need to take it for repairs every two weeks?

These are some of the questions a non-expert car purchaser has in mind when shopping for a used car, and a quick VIN search can answer these questions.

Getting a VIN report for a car is easier today than it used to be two decades ago. Now, you can get a vehicle’s history report at the tip of your fingers. One of the fastest, most reliable ways to get a vehicle’s history is by checking it on your phone.

There are websites that provide reliable VIN reports, and some of these websites like EpicVin, offer free VIN report services.

A quick VIN check will help you verify if a car’s history, as told by the seller, is the real history. If you are unfamiliar with how vehicle history and VIN work, we will explain them in this article.

What is VIN?

A VIN is a vehicle’s identification number. It is the assembly of numbers and letters to form a code unique to a vehicle. No two cars share an exact VIN. Because of its uniqueness, VIN is the best tag used to check a car’s history. 

What is a vehicle’s history?

It is a report of all the past events that have taken place since the car came into existence.

This report is often gathered from records of law enforcement agencies, insurance companies, repair shops, motor vehicle departments, the vehicle’s manufacturer, and other sources.

Let’s say that in 2015, a Honda Accord was manufactured at the Honda plant in Marysville, Ohio. It was moved to a dealership a month later.

Three months later it was sold to Josh Mildred, who gave it to his daughter, Jane Mildred, a year later. After using the car for about a year and three months, Jane ran off to New York to pursue her acting dream.

After two years in New York, Jane sold the car to Adam Sawyer, a thirty-five years old married man who died three months later from a heart attack.

Adam’s heartbroken wife, Mary, owned the car jointly with her husband. After his death, she moved to Texas, where her sister lived, and found herself a new home. Three years later, she took the 2015 Honda Accord to a dealership and traded it for a Toyota Tundra.

Two months later, the car is now clean and ready to be taken away by a new owner who has no clue where it has been or how it has been used. The car records, however, can show all the hidden details of the car.

How can a potential buyer check a car’s history?

Before buying a used car, check for a free VIN report service online. One of the best VIN lookup tools that provide reliable VIN reports is EpicVin.

The easiest way to get a VIN report is to visit the EpicVin website and type the 17-digit VIN into the search. The system automatically pulls out the history of any vehicle in a few seconds.

With this tool, a buyer will be able to see that for the three years that Mary used the vehicle, she took it for repairs twelve times. One time, she had a brake problem and lost two tires.

Based on this report, a potential buyer will be better able to make informed decisions.

A car’s history will not tell you anything about the vehicle that was not reported, nor will it tell you all the specifics regarding the car’s journey. A car’s history will give insight into what has happened to the car since 2012 and how much the vehicle should be worth.

What is part of a vehicle’s history report?

An accident report is a significant part of a car’s history. It tells you what kind of accident occurred and what damage was done to a vehicle during the accident.

A vehicle’s history will show if the car has suffered any structural damage or has undergone major repairs. You can also find out the types of repairs carried out on the car by looking at the vehicle’s history report.

A vehicle’s history also shows how the title has passed and what type of title covers the vehicle. Some cars are branded under a salvage title, lemon title, odometer rollback title, water damage title, or rebuilt title. These vehicles were either recovered from fire, flood, or accidents and had to be repaired. Such cars may not always last without constant visits to the mechanic.

If there is a lien on the vehicle, you will also see this as part of the car’s history. Loans that are yet to be settled and every other type of debt show up in the vehicle history report.

You can’t go wrong knowing a vehicle’s history

A vehicle history will help you read between the lines. You will find out where the vehicle has been, when it was there, in what conditions it was kept, how many people it has been transferred to, and so on.

If you still need to learn more about VIN and how Vehicle history reports work, check out our detailed post explaining VIN and its importance at EpicVin website.