When you buy a car from a car dealership, they sometimes provide free access to paid VIN check services such as CARFAX. But when that is not the case, you can still get your VIN checked through platforms that won’t cost you a penny.
Free VIN Check, for example, offers a zero-cost VIN check. All you need is your VIN; the site will provide details about any vehicle’s specs, condition, and history.
Try These Free Ways to Do a VIN Number Check
Free VIN Check
Free VIN Check is a powerful tool to check the VIN of a vehicle. Their free vehicle reports provide information about any vehicle’s specifications, condition, and history. And also, you can rely on this site to check the VINs of nearly any type or brand of vehicle created by major manufacturers.
Besides their free VIN checks, this site provides extra details you may need to pay to view.
You can check here to easily detect risks such as odometer fraud, lemon cars, VIN cloning, and title washing. These significant issues can ruin your car ownership experience and are unnoticeable when you decide not to scrutinize your vehicle before buying. Lemons are vehicles that are defective and require a large number of resources to repair.
The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB)
The National Insurance Crime Bureau is the site to check your VIN to confirm whether your vehicle has been reported as lost, stolen, salvaged, or declared a total loss following a severe crash. This site is one of the few completely free VIN check sites you can use to get a clear picture of these incidents. However, it doesn’t provide information beyond accident or theft records and limits your search to five searches within 24 hours per IP address.
iSeeCars
iSeeCars is another option to check your VIN for free. However, their vehicle reports are generally geared toward price analysis and history, projected depreciation, and the best times to buy and sell a car. As such, it may be unable to paint a good picture of a car’s past. Either way, it offers a robust VIN check experience for free.
Why Is a VIN Number Check Important
A VIN check is crucial in the following situations:
When You Want to Buy a Used Car
A VIN is the single and most important way to confirm the true identity of a car. Checking this number can reveal whether the vehicle’s accidents rendered it a total loss or severely defective. However, the seller is still selling it to unsuspecting customers. It can also reveal whether there is an outstanding loan owed on the car. Note that a loan still applies to a vehicle, even when it gets re-registered and acquires new plates.
When You Need to Replace Your Vehicle’s Parts
You must check your VIN code for components based on it. Various manufacturers make considerable alterations to the same model, so using just any replacement part increases the chance of an error.
During a Car Sale
Check the vehicle’s VIN, as you may identify exciting features about the car. You may explain these features to potential customers to win them over. Customers also need to be confident they are buying a legally owned vehicle. Checking a VIN enables them to validate the identity of the car they are buying.
And finally, A VIN check can reveal whether a vehicle has been recalled. When a particular brand or model is recalled, the manufacturer creates a website to help you check whether a car is affected. You will need to enter the VIN to be able to do so.
What Information Can You Obtain from a VIN
Decoding a VIN reveals everything you need about a vehicle’s specifications. So whether you’re just curious to learn about these details or want to buy a car, the VIN can help you discover its make and model, model year, body style, engine size, fuel efficiency, transmission type, and much more.
Additionally, checking a VIN against various databases can reveal much about its past. This process is excellent at tracking safety recalls, insurance claims, registration titles, claims, theft records, and liens.
It can reveal the actual mileage of a car. The value of a car’s mileage usually says a lot about its current condition. Note that owners or some unscrupulous dealers usually lower the mileage to increase the price of the vehicle.
Through a VIN check, you can estimate the number of previous car owners. A car that has too many owners may indicate some major mechanical troubles. It can also tell whether the vehicle has faced a recall, how it was used, and whether it was used as a rental vehicle.
A VIN is also well-known for revealing whether a car has been issued with a flood, branded, or rescue title. Such information allows you to gauge the previous maintenance of a vehicle and gain insights into what you can expect from its condition in the future.
Does the VIN Number Tell Where a Car Is
Technically, checking a VIN doesn’t reveal the real-time location of a car as a GPS does. However, this does not mean that when you’ve lost your car, you won’t track it down using the VIN.
To track it down, you must look up its VIN on online VIN check services such as Free VIN Check. Here, you will find vehicle history reports telling you details like ownership history and sale listing locations. It can give you a list of places where the vehicle was last serviced, registered, or titled. You may even discover that the car is in another state or country.
You can use this information based on the ownership details to try and recover the lost vehicle. E.g., you can contact the police informing them of the information you’ve collected so far. Such information will help them quickly investigate and get the car back.
Conclusion
When buying a car from a dealership that doesn’t provide a VIN check or instead provides expensive services, it is essential to get a VIN check elsewhere. You can have your car’s VIN checked at affordable or no cost in various ways. Try Free VIN Check to access valuable vehicle reports at no charge.
