Was the car in an accident - how to find out if you buy it from your hands?

In the post-Soviet space, more than half of drivers bought a used car at least once in their lives. Therefore, there are many "popular" ways to check the technical condition of a car. The problem is that car services are becoming more and more experienced every year in hiding the consequences of accidents. Therefore, when choosing a car, you should be extremely careful.

The easy way

Recently, new online services have appeared for checking cars in the traffic police databases. This innovation is partly borrowed from European countries. However, there is a stricter system for maintaining car passports. All car services leave notes in them, so it is rather difficult to hide the fact of an accident. So, the online resource "Autocode" presents all the information about the car by its VIN-code. Before finding out whether the car was in an accident, ask its owner for the VIN code.

A state number will also work. From this data, you will find out all the information about the car.

If the car appeared in an accident, then it is you in the traffic police database, from which the "Autocode" information is taken. You can also see various court decisions, and the report of authorized maintenance services. The information is provided quite complete, up to the reports of the traffic police and the traffic police. However, this new service is still far from perfect.

Service problems

Before finding out whether the car was in an accident on the Autocode website, you should consider a few points. Firstly, traffic police reports and formal records in court proceedings are very inaccurate. For example, a driver knocked over a cyclist while braking at a traffic light. He received a slight injury and the car owner got off with a fine, and the car itself was a scratch on the hood. But in the report they can write the abstract phrase "damage to the hood", which can mean anything.

Also, information about the accident will be indicated on the website only if it was officially registered. How to find out if the car was in an accident, if it is not registered, is unclear. In our realities, cases are common when drivers agree with each other "on the spot" and do not apply to law enforcement agencies. Also, damage can be the result of a collision with a non-machine. Another point is the records in the car service. Autocode collects information only from authorized service stations. But many drivers don't use them, or even do the repair themselves. But then how do you know if the car was involved in an accident?

Initial inspection

When buying a car, a personal inspection is very important.

The first stage is live communication with the seller. Many car enthusiasts will say that the most important thing when choosing a car is to pay attention to its owner. The first step is to find out what repair work was carried out. If the seller says that he did nothing and presents it as proof of the reliability of the machine, you need to be extremely careful. In any car, you need to change nozzles, oil seals, pads, and so on. Ask those. passport. If it is new, and there are no records, then the likelihood that the car was in an accident increases. You can check this by external examination.

The thickness of the paint

In any accident, the car body is damaged. It can be leveled, but the paint will still be rubbed off. Therefore, after completing all the repair work, the machines are painted. No matter how well it is done, the paint layer will change. A special device - a thickness gauge, determines the thickness of the enamel. If this indicator differs from the factory one, the car was painted. Check with the owner for what reasons this happened.

Was the car in an accident: how to check

The thickness of the paint is a fairly accurate indicator, but not completely accurate. Some workshops use modern high-tech equipment that allows painting in the same way as in a factory.

In any accident, the frame and body take the brunt of the blow. If severely damaged, they bend and change their geometry. This is fraught with a roll of the car in a certain direction when driving and poor performance of mechanisms. You can inspect the body at any service station. You can look under the floor yourself and inspect the side members carefully.

These are the main elements of the entire metal structure. They are manufactured in one piece and are rigidly fixed to the frame. When they are aligned, traces are always left. Welds are visible even with the naked eye.

How to know if a car got into an accident: a thorough check

Even if outwardly everything is in order with the car, a deep check should be carried out. Not a single serious accident passes without a trace. To find out if the car has been subjected to a side impact, the rubber bands on the doors are pulled back. Traces of factory spot welding and uniform painting should be clearly visible on the racks behind them. Door hinges require special attention. The bolts should be marked with so-called "control strokes".

That is, the white or yellow markings supplied at the factory.

The bolts that attach all the main elements of the car to the body usually also have their own paint. If at least one of them was filmed, it will not go unnoticed. All bolts are very tight and it is extremely difficult to remove them without damaging the splines. After the bolts, there is a control check - a sealant. It must be applied neatly and evenly on all areas that are visible from the outside. The bottom of the trunk can be greased with a sealant inaccurately - to clarify such points, it is better to see in advance how the car looks in the official showroom.

Legal side of the issue

However, the danger for the buyer is not only a hidden accident. How to find out if a car is wanted? The above-described Autocode service may be suitable for this. But the information may simply not get there due to the absence of a statement of loss (for example, the owner left for a long time, and the car was stolen). Also in Russia, such scams are widespread as the sale of a car that is taken on a loan. That is, the owner sells you a car, does not pay for it on a loan, and the bank has every right to pick up the car.

The registration certificate is also not an absolute proof of the "cleanliness" of the car. To exclude the possibility of tracing and debts on a loan, it is imperative to go with the owner to the traffic police. Only there they can give complete information.

Checking a car for an accident by VIN code is necessary if you decide to buy a used car from a random seller in the network or at the car market. It is not uncommon for unscrupulous sellers to "supply" battered cars to buyers, the repair of which in the future may cost their owners a pretty penny. ? Read the article.

Car check:

Checking the availability of vehicle data for FREE

Checking the history of vehicle ownership and operation in Russian Federation

Checking a supported car for an accident must be carried out before buying it, since it will be too late afterwards. This can be done in three ways:

• In the process of searching;

If you are looking for a car through some Internet resources, for example, on Avito, then it will not be superfluous to pay attention to the date when the application for the sale of the car was posted on the site. If the application is already several months old, then this may indicate either that the car was exhibited at a price that does not correspond to its true value, or that during a personal inspection the buyer reveals some serious defects of the car (dents, chips or other defects, which is not mentioned in the statement).

• In the process of personal inspection;

You made an appointment with the seller of the used car and decided to thoroughly examine your future purchase. If the car was in an accident, then upon inspection it will be immediately visible. Inspect all parts of the machine carefully. This should be done exclusively in a well-lit area (outdoors during the daytime or in a brightly lit room). The car itself must be cleaned so that the buyer can see if there are chips, scratches or parts on the body that differ in color. It is the differences in color that most clearly indicate that the car has been involved in a traffic accident. And if the driver himself kept silent about this, you should refuse to buy such a car.

• Through the traffic police website;

This method of verification is possible if you know the vehicle's Vin code.

In the next section, we will take a closer look at how to check a car for an accident using the Vin code.

Check for an accident by VIN-code

Before proceeding to the description of checking a car for an accident by VIN-code, we will understand what a VIN-code is and how to find it out.

VIN-code is an individual vehicle number, consisting of seventeen characters, each of which carries specific information about the car (brand, manufacturer, technical characteristics). The vehicle is identified by this number.

How to find out what VIN code a car has? Each car can have it in different parts. So, you can try to find it:

• Opening the hood of the car and finding seventeen signs in the left corner;
• Looking under the driver's seat;
• After examining the door pillar from the driver's side;
• Having examined the windshield from the driver's side;
• After examining the trunk of the car;
• Looking under the front wheel tires;

The owner himself can find out the VIN code by looking at it in the vehicle's technical passport. The numbers hammered into one of the elements of the car must match the numbers indicated in the passport of the technical device.

In addition, the VIN number can be obtained from the buyer of the used vehicle. If he has nothing to hide, he will give the VIN number without problems. However, if the owner of the car refuses to provide the number, it is better to refuse to purchase this vehicle.

Unscrupulous sellers may deliberately name the VIN code of another car, so that when checking, for example, through the traffic police website, you cannot find out that the car was involved in a traffic accident. Therefore, it is better to write down the VIN code yourself when inspecting the vehicle.

How to check a car by VIN-code? Today, motorists know two ways:

• Self check. To exclude the possibility that the car on sale was previously stolen, it is worth checking the VIN numbers personally. In the "native" wine code, the code signs will be clearly filled, of the same size and color. After visual inspection of the signs, ask the seller to show the vehicle registration certificate. The numbers indicated in it must match those examined;
• Check the vehicle for an accident through the official website of the traffic police.

Checking the car for an accident through the traffic police

If you know the VIN numbers of the car that you want to purchase, but you can check the car for an accident by going to the official website of the traffic police.

On the traffic police website you can check:

• Has the car ever been stolen;
• Whether registration restrictions are imposed on it;
• Whether the vehicle is under arrest by the fiscal service;
• Vehicle registration history;
• The number of vehicle accidents;

To check the car for an accident on the traffic police website, you need to take the following steps:

• Follow the link http://www.gibdd.ru/check/auto/#;
• In the pop-up list, select the section "Check for participation in road accidents";
• In the "VIN / body / chassis" window, drive in the seventeen characters of the VIN-code of the vehicle that you want to check;
• Click on the "Request verification" button
• If the car has been involved in road accidents, then the results of the check will show information about this in the form of a list;

The results of the check can only show those accidents in which the vehicle has been involved since the beginning of 2015. Accidents in which the vehicle was involved before 2015 will not be displayed.

When buying a used car, a potential owner may have doubts about the seller's trouble-free driving. He has the right to check the presence of an accident by license, compulsory insurance policy or by the VIN of the car. The availability of such information will give an answer to the question about the real mileage of the vehicle, whether he was arrested by a court decision, whether he is wanted and whether he was damaged in an accident.

Check for an accident under the CTP policy

All information about the issued OSAGO policies is stored in the PCA database. And if earlier, by changing the insurer, it was possible to conceal a message, for example, about an accident, today this data is available.

How to find out by the policy whether there was a car in an accident? When calculating insurance, various coefficients are used, including KBM (bonus-malus), which varies from 1 to 15 class. A citizen who has just got behind the wheel of a car will receive 3 class and coefficient 1. Subsequently, with trouble-free driving, this value will necessarily decrease, and the class will grow. That is, in a year he will have grade 4, and the coefficient is 0.95. When a driver becomes a participant in an accident, or rather, his culprit, the class is automatically reduced, as well as the coefficient. Be sure to casually ask the seller what discount he has on MTPL - this will indirectly confirm or refute your fears.

As a rule, such an accident check is needed by employers who are considering the candidacy of a potential driver.

It is possible to find out information about whether a car has had an accident using OSAGO, but for this you need to know:

• driver's license data;
• Full name of the citizen;
• date of his birth.

To check in the required form, selected on the PCA website, in the OSAGO tab, section "Information for policyholders and victims", you must fill in the proposed empty fields and click the search button.

How to find out about an accident by VIN number of a car

The VIN of the car is its identifier and is usually located in the following places:

• under the hood;
• in the area of \u200b\u200bthe windshield (at the bottom);
• on the doors;
• in the cabin.

You can also find it in the documentation for the car. To do this, ask the owner of the car to provide you with the TCP or STS, and then take the necessary information from here.

Checking by number is used in the case of purchasing used vehicles. If it is impossible to determine the external signs of damage, but doubts still remain, then the interested citizen has the right to use the GIBBD service "Vehicle check". When entering the identification data of the machine, control will be carried out, including for participation in a traffic accident.

The second option for obtaining information is the "Autohistory" service on the Autocode website, in which, when specifying the number and data on the certificate for the car, you can find out the entire history of ownership and operation of the car.

Another option is to go to the State Service portal and visit the car check site. When you enter the VIN, you will see information about the restrictions that have been imposed on the car and have not yet been removed (accident, search).

How to find out the presence of an accident by the driver's license number

According to the driver's license, you can get information about whether people who sell cars have been involved in accidents. Since the rights are tied to a person, and not to a car, we will talk about a specific subject, because during his life he can drive different cars.

What are the ways to get information?

1. Autocode portal.
2. The traffic police service for checking a driver's license. It allows you to find out whether a person was involved in an accident or not. You need to enter the series and number of the document, as well as the date of issue. The system will not give a direct answer to the question of whether there was an accident, but it will offer information about whether the driver was deprived of his license and for what reason, including for participation in a traffic accident.

Thus, it is possible to clarify all the information about the driver's accident-free driving or being in a car accident using special services. Depending on what data is on hand, the driver's license number or policy data, the citizen chooses the option that suits him.

Sometimes, when buying a car, it becomes necessary to check the car for the presence of registered traffic accidents. This is done in order not to get caught by scammers and to buy a good car instead of a beautifully restored bat wreck.

Dear reader! Our articles talk about typical ways of solving legal issues, but each case is unique.

If you want to know how to solve exactly your problem - contact the online consultant form on the right or call.

It's fast and free!

And here the main question becomes: how to do this, and which method will be more reliable? In this article, you can find a detailed and detailed answer to this question.

Verification methods

In fact, there are not so many ways to check, they are not particularly difficult.

So, there are 2 methods of checking for an accident:

1. Check on the base of the traffic police traffic police.
2. Checking the database of the insurance company.

The only drawback of these checks is that only the facts recorded by the employees of the offices are included in the database. That is, if the seller had situations when the issue was resolved without “cops” or “insurers”, then it is already more difficult to identify.

Through the traffic police

Today, before buying a car, our government agencies provide such a service as checking the "cleanliness" of the car. That is, if you wish, you can find out all the official information and the history of the item of purchase.

And more specifically, using this method, you can find out:

1. Debts and unpaid fines that are levied on the vehicle.
2. The number of previous owners and their data.
3. External and technical characteristics of the machine
4. The number of technical inspections, the date of their implementation and the final conclusions
5. Participation in road traffic accidents. The severity of the damage.

Also, an online service has been developed for checking through the traffic police database. Here you can carry out exactly the same diagnostics, just without leaving your home and using your home computer. This is a great option for the buyer. Before a personal inspection, you can understand whether it is worth going to it at all.

Through an insurance company

Not so long ago, insurers have created a common base of RSA OSAGO. It lists cars that have ever used insurance services. Since, according to the law, these conditions are mandatory for the owner of the car, we can say that 85% of Russian cars are included there.

But here everything is a little more complicated. Due to the fact that access to this register is open only to insurers, you can find out the necessary information only by contacting them. In principle, there is nothing unreal about this. Usually, insurance companies are in awe of their client's every request.

Other ways to check

There are many online services with which you can determine whether a car was involved in accidents or not.

Of these, resources are allocated: Autocode, Vincar, Carfax and Vinonline.

Autocode

A resource of Russian origin, with which you can check a car for brokenness. This can be done in two ways:

1. By state number.
2. By wine number.

As a result, complete information that is available on the Internet in general should be given. This includes: credit information, data on an accident involving a car, repairs after accidents, customs information and other information about the car.

Vincar service

Data search through the service occurs only on the basis of the vehicle's wine code. The main block of information for Vincara is the registers of the traffic police and insurance services.

Cars are included in this register within two weeks after the accident is recorded by specialists.

There have been cases when the site went astray and gave incorrect information.

The easiest and most convenient Carfax internet service

All detailed instructions are available on the website. Here even the information found is generated in a separate report for printing. Just like on Autocode, the car is checked according to state signs and the wine number of the body.
But sometimes the app doesn't work as expected.

Vinonline

As the name implies, the check on the site is carried out according to the vehicle's wine code. By the way, if this option does not work, you can check by the body number or by the assigned chassis number of the car. In addition to the fact of damage, the service shows the degree of its complexity.

The site has a detailed user manual.

Testing a new car can take place not only in such ways. For example, every experienced or even novice driver should have his own mechanic or person whom he trusts to repair his car. Also, it may just be a friend who is well versed in vehicle repair and will help with inspection.

Many drivers take a potential purchase to a proven service station, where experts do an independent inspection.

In extreme cases, you can do the inspection yourself, having previously familiarized yourself with all the subtleties on the Internet. For example, there is a rule that is worth remembering: it is very difficult to find a paint identical to the native one, when repainting damaged elements of the car body.

This moment is quite realistic to determine by eye: you need to pay attention to body clearances, chips, cracks and other irregularities. First of all, they appear on painted parts.

For such cases, a device was invented - a thickness gauge. Thanks to him, you can accurately determine whether the car was involved in an accident and which element was painted. Also, with certain knowledge, it can be concluded how badly it was broken, whether the geometry suffered and how much the body was deformed.

Conclusion

Among all the methods, the most optimal and most reliable is a check through the traffic police. They provide the most accurate and verified information from the bowels of the state register.

We advise you to approach the issue of vehicle inspection with all caution and care. It is better to fully examine the car, carefully inspect every millimeter of the body, check for serviceability and only then conclude a purchase and sale deal, so that later you will not regret your choice.

Buying a car on the secondary market involves some risk: the car can be pledged or restored after an accident. In this article, I will tell you how not to buy a pig in a poke and check the vehicle for legal cleanliness and accidents before signing a purchase agreement. Moreover, this can be done both for free and quickly, but for a small fee.

We only need access to the Internet and the state. car number (you can get it from the seller by phone or look at the photos of the car). If you want to feel like a super agent and know everything in advance, then you need to get another name and date of birth of a potential seller.

1. Checking the car for an accident in the state. number

In fact, the traffic police took care of motorists for a long time and developed a convenient service for checking cars https: //gibd.d.rf/check/auto/. Here you can get complete and reliable information about registration actions, traffic accidents, prohibitions and restrictions related to the car for free.

The only problem is that you need a VIN code to run the check. Therefore, if you choose a car remotely, for example through Avito, or the seller does not have documents with a VIN in the hands of the seller, the traffic police website will be useless. But there is one "trick" that will help us a lot - knowing the state number of the car, we can easily get the VIN code!

The traffic police will tell us a lot of interesting things. For example, the registration history:

What you can learn from this example. Firstly, the car has been traveling around Russia since 2003. Secondly, she changed many owners. Frequent "re-registration" after short periods of time may indicate that there is a "jamb" in the car, identifying which, each subsequent owner tries to get rid of the car as soon as possible. This, at least, should alert, but rather serve as a reason to leave this option "on the shelf".

In our example, the car is not on the wanted list, but restrictions are imposed on it - the prohibition of registration actions. Until this record disappears, you don't even need to talk to the seller about buying this car. The seller has a debt recognized by the court and being executed by the bailiffs. It can be a mortgage debt, and maybe a car loan.

Remember, at the beginning of this article, I talked about super agents? I hope you already know the name of the seller ...

3. Punching the seller into debt

Everything is simple, go to the website of the Federal Bailiff Service http://fssprus.ru and drive the seller's data into the form:

We press the button "Find" and enjoy our power as a result:

In the example, issuance by full name without date of birth. The more data, the more accurate the result. What is worth paying attention to here. First, look at the existence of writs of execution against the seller - if there are a lot of them, then restrictions may be imposed on the car. It will be difficult to register such a car with the traffic police. Secondly, pay attention to the number of traffic fines.

4. Checking the car for fines

If you have the number of the registration certificate and the state number of the car, you can find out all the ins and outs of the fines of its owner using the resource https: //hybd.d.rf/check/fines/.

Perhaps our seller is a fan of "driving", and hence the assumption about how the car was used. In addition, with a large number of unpaid fines (depending on the traffic police department and the subject of the Russian Federation), a problem may arise when the car is removed from the register.

5. See if the car is pledged

In order to check whether the car is in pledge, you need to open the website of the register of pledges of the Federal Notary Chamber: https://www.reestr-zalogov.ru/search/index

On this site we will be interested in the item "Find in the register". Next, select the search tab "For information about the subject of pledge", enter the VIN of the vehicle in the input field and press the button "Find". If the search returns an empty result, then everything is fine and the car is not pledged.

Comprehensive verification through a paid service

You can also get detailed information about the history of ownership and operation of a particular car through the paid service "Autocode".

This official service can provide a complete and accurate report on any car operating on the territory of the Russian Federation, by VIN, chassis number or state registration plate. In addition to information from the traffic police bases, you can find out there:

• Number of owners
• Mileage
• Checking the bases for theft and accidents
• Use as a taxi
• Customs history

Currently, the cost of preparing a report in this service is 349 rubles.

We told you about all the ways to punch a car. We hope you only come across legally clean cars and honest sellers.