Car accident history check

Mudchild

Hi all

Is there a recommended reliable cheap or free way to get an accident history check for a car?

many thanks

Alex

CliveOfIndia

You can't really check whether a car has had a minor accident, it's not recorded anywhere centrally.  An HPI check will show if it's ever been written off by an insurance company, but that's about all you can do.

Other than that, you can look for signs of accident repair.  Subtly different shades of paint on one panel to the adjacent panel, paint finishes that just don't quite match the rest of the car, use a magnet to check if large amounts of filler have been used on a steel panel, that sort of thing.  Pretty un-scientific and subjective, and not at all 100% guaranteed.  But it'll sometimes give you a clue.

DullGreyGuy

MIAFTR will tell you if it's been a total loss or stolen unrecovered (and if then subsequently recovered) which you can access via an HPI check. 

CUE cannot be searched by registration by the public and not all insurers subscribe to it and entry of third party details can be ropy so not great if they claimed off someone else's insurance rather than their own. 

Obviously if they just paid to get it fixed out their own pocket or even fixed it themselves there will be no records anywhere close to a central record.