How to Get a Free VIN Check & Vehicle History Report
We know that features, facilities, model year, and cost are the top things to watch out for while buying a car. But, we don’t know that checking all these things will not help you to avoid buying a compromised or counterfeit car.
Yes, there is a possibility that you end up investing your money in a dupe.
Odds of happening so increase by 200% when someone tries to make a deal on pre-owned cars. What seems all ok from the surface can be totally damaged or include a forged engine.
This is where checking up a VIN beforehand comes as a life saviour.
How and Why to Perform VIN Check?
By decoding this one code on the popular VIN decoder site, the entire history of the vehicle will be right in front of your eyes. If you’re still ignorant about VIN and wondering from where you can decode it, this post is going to help a lot.
Not yet sure what VIN is? No worries; let us first explain VIN and we will get back to the importance and process of VIN Check again later.
VIN Meaning – Knowing the Wonder Code
Before we tell you about how to check a VIN, let’s talk about what a VIN actually is.
VIN or Vehicle Identification Number is a 17-character long code, allotted to every vehicle, designed to educate others about details like manufacture & its geographical location, type of engine used, body type, vehicle serial number, and many more.
VIN is assigned at the time of manufacturing only and is unique, just like a human’s fingerprint or DNA. Before 1981, there was no standard format for VIN, and manufacturers were allowed to set VIN as per their choices. This was a cumbersome process as it was hard to figure out which character is talking about which factor.
It was late 1981 when a standard VIN format was launched and car manufacturers were suggested to adhere to it.
Why Check a VIN?
VIN is not just a mere code mentioned on the vehicle. It hides tons of crucial information inside it. Upon decoded properly, it will open up the entire vehicle history. Checking the VIN of a vehicle, before signing the deal, is crucial for various reasons.
Get to know the actual truth
VIN check will help you check the authenticity of the car parts. You may not get compromised parts in a brand new car but you can be fooled big time when you’re buying a pre-owned car.
No matter how shiny a car seems and how polite the seller is, there is no 100% guarantee that the car is in safe & sound condition.
A VIN check report will help you figure out who was the previous owner, was the vehicle involved in a serious car accident, the amount of physical damage that happened to the car, and many more hidden facts.
This way, it will ensure that you’re not investing your money in the wrong product. Also, it will tell you whether or not the car was involved in the theft.
Don’t fall into a mileage scam
There is a huge difference in buying a pre-owned one that has covered 600 miles or 6000 miles. The more miles a car has traveled, the less is its longevity. No one is willing to buy a car that has already covered thousands of miles. This is why mileage tempering is a very common issue.
To make sure you’re fooled, get a VIN history report as all the actual mileage details will be mentioned in it.
Pay only what it costs
A VIN history report will help you find out the actual worth of a pre-owned car and help you pay only the actual cost.
How To Check a VIN and Get a VIN?
Now that all the key reasons behind checking a VIN beforehand are clear, it’s time to figure out how to check VIN and get a report. Well, there are two ways to check VIN. The first one is the manual way and the second one is the automatic way. Let’s know both these ways:
- The manual way for VIN check
In a manual way, one has to understand what each digit/character of VIN signifies and then put them together to get the vehicle history report. The VIN is divided into three sections.
The first three characters talk about the manufacturer, the next seven characters give details about body type and engine, the last eight characters are the serial number of the vehicle and the format differs from manufacturer to manufacturer.
Benefit: It costs nothing
Drawbacks:
- It’s too time-consuming
- Odds of error are high in this VIN check method
It’s not that detailed. Only the details about the manufacture, engine type, and serial number can be fetched. Owner details, the authenticity of the body parts, and many more crucial details can’t be figured out.
- The automatic way for VIN check
In the automatic way of VIN check, one has to take the help of a high-end online VIN check platform, enter the VIN in the search bar, and hit “Enter”.
In the blink of an eye, a detailed VIN history report will be offered. As the high-end AI is used in these online VIN check platforms, thousands of records will be hunted down easily & quickly. You don’t have to wait for long to get the results.
Pros
- It’s quick and error-free. Unless you enter the wrong VIN details, errors will not occur.
- Details about the owner, past accidents, and many more will be offered.
Cons
- Using an authentic VIN check platform matters a lot as with a run-of-the-mill VIN check, you can have inaccurate results.
Ending Notes
Want to be an aware car buyer? Well, VIN can help you out. This code holds a lot of hidden information inside it and allows prospective buyers to know the targeted vehicle.
Even things like who was the past owner or whether or not the car was involved in an accident will be revealed. In short, no one can fool you out when a detailed VIN history report is by your side.
However, not every VIN platform is going to help as it should be. So, make sure that the one you’re choosing is best-of-breed and is laced with high-end AI, and is a trusted one. Toyota VIN Decoder is one such platform.
