As practice shows, more than 75% of vehicles put up for sale have had an accident at least once. But the seller often hides this fact so as not to lose money. Therefore, before making a deal, it is recommended to check the car for an accident. Check the car for an accident by wine or state. number in just 5 minutes using the "Autocode" service.

How to find out if a car has been involved in an accident

If you decide to buy a used car, be sure to check the selected vehicle in advance. This way you will avoid empty views (which is especially important if the car is located in another region) or you can bargain based on the results of the check. You can find out if the car was in accidents by VIN or state. number online.

What other information can you get:

• Number of owners
• Mileage
• The presence of encumbrances
• Being hijacked
• History of penalties
• The cost of compulsory motor third party liability insurance, etc.

With all this data, it will be much easier to make a choice.

Why is it important to check your car for accidents

Denis Lukin, auto expert

“It is necessary to break a car in an accident not only because you do not want to overpay for a broken car. Deception is an unpleasant business, but one thing is just a painted bumper, from which one day the varnish begins to peel off and paint with putty falls off. Another thing is if the car has been in a serious accident and is welded from several parts, or the geometry of the body has not been completely straightened, and therefore its structure is weakened. The machine can be torn apart on the move. In the case of welding of two parts, it may not deploy the airbags in an accident or be triggered arbitrarily without any collision. Therefore, checking a car for accidents before buying is the first and most important necessity. "

Dmitry, did not check the car before buying

“I got a one-year-old Kia Sportage in the salon in excellent condition and with low mileage. I was madly glad! A little later, when driving in a car, something began to tap, noise appeared. A few months later, when replacing the wheels, I saw cracks in the bottom. I looked under the engine - there are dents on the crankcase protection. When I took it off, I realized that almost everything was cracked inside, as if from a good blow. And from above, the car looks like new. It is necessary to do an examination, and it costs a lot. In the salon, of course, they say that the whole thing was on sale. And you won't prove anything. Looks like the renovation will cost me a pretty penny. Or you will have to sell the car at half the price. " I haven't decided yet. It was still necessary to check the car for accidents online in the salon. "

Mikhail, did not check the car before buying

“Two years ago I bought a car in Moscow. When we began to conduct an inspection with the seller, it was already dark outside. How to check the car differently, I did not know. We entered into a sales contract in a simple written form. In general, I saw that the car was broken at home. There were hidden damages on the car - the gearbox and the left side of the car were broken. The crackling of the suspension is heard while driving. There is not a word about this in the DCT. The seller says he did not know about the damage. I am the third owner according to the documents, found and contacted the first owner. He said that he had sold the car to a reseller in a very bad condition. I really want to return the money, but the reseller disappeared. Until they find him, the issue with the car will not be resolved. "

Why is it better to punch a car in an accident through Autocode

Most online services do not allow you to check whether a car is broken or not without a vin code. This confuses those who are first faced with the purchase of a used car. On the "Autocode" portal, it is possible to check a car for an accident by vin, as well as check only by state number.

What are the other advantages of the service:

• Checking a car for accidents from any region;
• Request for state number, vin code and body number;
• Formation of a complete report in one click;
• Convenient mobile application, you can take with you on a deal;
• It has been working on the market for over 7 years, thousands of drivers have already appreciated all the advantages of the service.

Separately, it should be noted that from 2017 on "Autocode" you can punch information on a Japanese car. Previously, this information could only be found through the traffic police by the body number (recall that there is no VIN code on cars from the land of the rising sun).

The report is compiled on the basis of data from government and commercial sources, including: checking a car for accidents on the basis of the traffic police, executive authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, judicial authorities, large insurance companies, etc. Thus, you get data on any officially registered incident: date, place, type of accident.

Checking accidents by VIN or state number on the portal is much faster than looking for data on several sites. By requesting a full report on the Autocode website online, you can be sure that you will not be mistaken with the choice.

Was the car in an accident - how do you know if you buy it from your hands?

In the post-Soviet space, more than half of drivers have 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 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 if 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 to the traffic police database, from which the "Autocode" information is taken. You can also see the 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 far from perfect.

Service problems

Before you find out if 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 owner of the car 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 not clear. In our realities, cases are widespread 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 do not 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 motorists 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 repairs were 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 injectors, oil seals, pads, and so on. Ask those. the 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 an external examination.

The thickness of the paint

In any accident, the car body is damaged. It can be leveled, but the paint will still wear 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. When 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. Weld seams are visible even with the naked eye.

How to know if a car is involved in 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 move aside. 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 marks 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, then 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 sealant inaccurately - to clarify such points, it is better to see in advance what the car looks like in the official showroom.

Legal side of the issue

However, the danger for the buyer is not only a hidden accident. How do you know 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, which 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 loan debts, it is imperative to go with the owner to the traffic police. Only there they can give complete information.

19.07.2017

With the crisis and declining sales of new cars, the used car market is booming. High demand has led to the emergence of a whole army of swindlers offering vehicles repaired after an accident. There are firms that buy broken cars in wagons and assemble cars of a practically new type from several identical models. Therefore, it can be quite difficult to find out if a car was in an accident during a visual inspection.

Checking for an accident according to the VIN code of the vehicle

How to find out, Was the car in an accident, how many times and how serious was it damaged? These questions are of interest to every potential buyer. The easiest and most effective way to find out whether the car you like was involved in an accident is to go to a specialized Internet service or to the website of the Traffic Police Department and check the car by VIN -number. A request for a VIN code will allow you to receive not only this information, but all important information about the vehicle and its owner.

For instance, if an accident took place in the period from 2015 on the territory of Russia, the buyer who has contacted the traffic police website can receive photographic materials from the scene of the accident, and a diagram of the most significant mechanical damage, according to which he will be able to assess:

· the degree of total damage,

· whether the body elements are badly damaged,

· damage to the power plant,

· damage to the chassis of the vehicle.

Similar information about a car accident, you will receive in the full report of the Internet service "Autoport". In addition, in addition to the participation of the vehicle in accidents, you will know the data of its technical inspections and OSAGO, the mileage and restrictions of the traffic police and a lot of useful information from the history of the car and its owners - including information that traffic police reports do not provide (for example, is there car pledged).

If the technique was repaired in a serious legal car service, the VIN buyer will know what the part was replaced and what the repair cost. But how to find out how many accidents the car had if the owner did not go to the car service or he is just a swindler, we will tell you below.

Visual check of the car for participation in an accident

The question is how to find out whether the car was in an accident, directly asking the seller, and not to be mistaken, we will leave to psychologists. We ourselves will assume that during a personal inspection of the vehicle, it is possible to reveal traces of an accident that were not declared by the traffic police or the insurance company and were not eliminated in a specialized car service. We use simple proven techniques:

· To buy a car, you need to allocate enough time and make the inspection extremely carefully and scrupulously. If the owner rushes you, this may be one of the signs that the car was involved in an accident. Does the seller distract you, avoids direct questions? This means that something is really not clean with the car. If you like it a lot, arrange a "prejudice search", not paying attention to the groans of the owner.

· Looking straight at the car, the smooth curves of the surface broken and poorly restored body will be almost invisible. Therefore, during inspection, you should sit behind the rear, and then behind the front fender and look parallel to the body. Numerous dents will tell you that the car had more than one accident and (or) that the body was often leveled, and not at the best service. In the same way, looking along the surface, we inspect the trunk lid and hood..

· How to find out if there was a car accident,on the condition of the spare wheel compartment?This part of the body is the most vulnerable place, especially for hatchbacks. If there are traces of rust in the compartment, it means that the car was hit in the trunk and poorly restored, as water gets into it.

· Another easy way to find out whether the car was in an accident - to suggest the seller to drive to the "pit" and inspect the side members. Even perfectly repaired damage in this part of the machine is extremely difficult to hide - small defects remain.

· How to find out about a car accidentby inspecting the edge of the doors and wheel arches? You just need to run your hand over these elements. If the car has been damaged in these places, traces of straightening will certainly remain. Low-grade paint coatings used for painting, which differ in color from the general background, can also indicate accidents.

These are the simplest and most effective ways. , which will help you find out if there was a car in an accident or you can trust the car owner. Remember: every detected defect is a great reason to significantly reduce the price..

Buying a new car is not a cheap pleasure, so Russians still prefer to shop on the secondary market. According to the results of 2016, transactions with used cars exceeded the sales of car dealers by almost 4 times (5.3 million and 1.4 million). But those who want to save money need to remember that buying a used car is associated with many risks.

And the most common of them is the purchase of a vehicle after an accident, the consequences of which were carefully retouched by the seller. Only motorists with extensive experience can visually calculate this fact, but for beginners, fortunately, now there are several available ways to check a car for an accident.

○ Visual inspection.

This is not the most reliable way of expertise for road accidents, since modern technologies used in repair and painting are capable of almost 100% eliminating all visual imperfections. But you shouldn't neglect this stage.

For a successful visual inspection, it is important to create the right environment:

• Good lighting (daylight or bright artificial).
• A clean car to avoid masking body damage with dirt.
• Adequate amount of time, as in a rush, important details can be missed.

It is good to involve a person who is versed in car repairs in the inspection. If this is not possible, study the car yourself, following the following algorithm:

1. Examine the coating for deformations. It is convenient to examine the side surfaces while squatting. Pay special attention to the roof and hood.
2. Examine the joints of the parts, they should be uniform in width along their entire length.
3. If you suspect that there is a putty, attach a magnet wrapped in cloth to the questionable area. Its fall will tell about an impressive layer of coverage.
4. Check the door mechanisms. If the geometry of the body part is violated, the opening and closing of the doors will be accompanied by extraneous sounds.
5. Inspect the body parts, they should be uniform in color and free from traces of the old paint.
6. Find stamps on glass and check their production dates.

Even if no visible signs of an accident were found, the history of the car should still be checked using special services. The easiest way to do this is by its unique code.

○ Checking for road accidents by VIN code.

The Vin-code is assigned to the vehicle by the manufacturer. This is a unique seventeen-digit number consisting of numbers and Latin letters. Each of its symbols carries a certain meaning - an indication of the country and plant, year of manufacture, type of vehicle, body number. When inspecting a car personally, do not rely on the seller's words, but rather find the Vin-code yourself.

Typically, the license plate is located on one of the following parts of the car:

• Under the hood.
• Under the driver's seat.
• On the driver's side door.
• On the windshield.
• In the trunk.
• On the tires of the front wheels.

With a Vin-code, you can find out comprehensive information about a vehicle, including its participation in an accident. For these purposes, many online services have been created. The most popular ones are:

1. Autocode. The service allows you to get information about all former and existing car owners, its real mileage, road accidents and repairs carried out, use as a taxi, being pledged or hijacked and about many other important points. The report is formed on the basis of the databases of the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate, FSSP, credit institutions and insurance companies.
2. VinRu. The report is formed on the basis of state. bodies of 3 states at once - Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus.
3. AutoDNA. Leading service for checking car histories from the USA and Europe, operating since 2010.

In principle, you can use any of the services presented in the network, since they all provide reports that are similar in composition. It is much more important to make sure that the Vin-code you have is authentic.

✔ Fake wine code.

Falsification of the Vin-code is carried out, most often, with the aim of legalizing a stolen car. But this step can also be taken by unscrupulous sellers who want to hide the fact of the car's participation in the accident. Fraudsters practice in several ways:

1. Interlacing symbols by drawing additional elements, or filling in unnecessary elements with a polymer mixture.
2. Putting putty on the location of the code on the body and its further painting.
3. Applying metal to the area to be marked, leveling with locksmithing and engraving the new code on this place.
4. Cutting out individual characters and their subsequent editing in a different sequence, or upside down (for example, numbers 6 and 9).

You can check the authenticity of the code using the same online services. In addition, the Vin-code located on the elements of the car is necessarily duplicated in its technical documentation. You can identify inconsistencies by simple verification with documents.

The seller faces criminal liability for falsifying the identification number.

Clause 1 of Article 326 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation:

• “Forgery or destruction of an identification number is punishable by a fine in the amount of up to eighty thousand rubles or in the amount of the wages or salary or other income of the convicted person for a period of up to six months, or by compulsory labor for a term of up to three hundred and sixty hours, or by corrective labor for a term of up to one year, or by restriction freedom for up to two years, or forced labor for up to two years, or imprisonment for the same period. "

○ Checking a car for an accident in the traffic police or through the traffic police website.

All services for checking the Vin-code draw information about accidents with the car from the database of the State Traffic Inspectorate. Therefore, it would be more logical to refer to the primary source. In addition, unlike third-party services, verification on the site is free. You can get information from the traffic police database in two ways:

• With the help of a visit to the traffic police department.
• Using the service on the official Internet resource of the traffic police.

With the first method, everything is simple, so let's take a closer look at the online verification mechanism.

To check a car for an accident, you must perform the following steps:

1. Go to the main page of the traffic police website.
2. In the "Services" section, select "Vehicle check".
3. In line Vin / Body / Chassis enter your code.
4. Select "Check for participation in road traffic accidents" from the check options presented below the line.
5. Click Request Review.

After the introduction of the captcha, you will be provided with a report on the participation of the car in an accident. But it should be borne in mind that this database was formed only in 2015, and does not contain information about earlier accidents. In addition, it is possible to calculate only those accidents that were recorded by a police officer and put on federal records.

○ Checking for road accidents through an insurance company.

Insurance organizations have a common database where all data on the insured events that have occurred in relation to cars are entered. Having in hand the data on the insurance policy of the purchased car, you can contact your insurer to obtain information about the accident. You can ask the seller for a copy of the insurance policy, or find out the data on it using the service of the Russian Union of Auto Insurers. To do this, you need the Vin-code of the vehicle, its registration plate, as well as body and chassis numbers.

○ Checking for an accident through the website of the State Service.

The site of the State Service accumulates information from the databases of all government departments of the Russian Federation. You can find here information about the participation of a car in an accident, as well as about its registration, owners, and all kinds of restrictions. But the service also has a significant drawback - a complicated registration procedure, which involves an authorization procedure by personally visiting any of the state. bodies, or the code received by mail. If you have not previously registered on the portal, then it will be easier to pierce the car with any of the other services.

You can get the necessary information on the State Service website in the "Transport and Driving" section, you will need a Vin-code and a registration plate number for this.

○ Checking at a service station.

When buying a new car, a service card is issued for it, in which all marks on technical inspections and repair work will be entered. Such a card can be requested from the dealer in order to view the history of the maintenance of the machine. It will not be superfluous to visit the service station to diagnose the vehicle.

However, visiting an authorized dealer's service center has several disadvantages:

• There is a high likelihood of establishing friendly relations between the owner of the car and the employees of the service, who, in his interests, may "fail to notice" significant shortcomings.
• Computer diagnostics, which are practiced in such services, may not be enough to make an objective assessment.
• You will not be able to find out the adequate amount required for repairs, since the prices of official service centers are higher than in ordinary service stations.

For these reasons, it is better to give the car to an independent service center for an examination of an accident and an assessment of the technical condition.

Used cars are widely represented on the automotive market. Used cars are in demand among people who decide to own a car. Buyers of such vehicles may face the dishonesty of sellers who hide the truth about the vehicle. The most unpleasant truth, which will certainly be revealed when checking the car, is the accidents suffered. The result is unforeseen hassle, repair costs, waste of money, and frustration. In addition, you will have problems when re-registering the car as your property.

In most cases, when buying a car on the secondary market, people are guided only by the price, women pay special attention to the appearance of the car. With this approach, it is easy to buy an unreliable car with a bad background. Before purchasing a car, you need to check the technical parts of the vehicle, the conformity of the body and engine numbers for compliance with the data of the technical passport, it is necessary to check the factory painting of the car or it is repainted.

How to check if a car was in an accident

New cars continue to give up the palm in buying used cars. When buying such a car, it is very important to find out whether the car got into an accident or not. One cannot count on the seller's honesty, so the buyer himself must recognize whether the car was damaged. Some machine malfunctions resulting from an accident can be very serious and beyond repair. In this case, the owner of the car tries to quickly get rid of it, hastily hiding the visible flaws.

The check is carried out in the following ways:

1. Inspection of the car.
2. Check the car for existing databases.

Car accident check: external inspection

A thorough visual inspection of the machine will reveal damage and repairs carried out. There are several generalized recommendations for inspecting a car:

• visual inspection is best done in a well-lit room or outdoors, in daylight;
• the car should be washed before inspection, as minor contamination will help to hide the malfunction.

It is necessary to determine the quality of the painting during the inspection. Any irregularities, a difference in the color of the paint on different parts of the body will indicate that the car has been in an accident. Inconsistencies in the joints of parts, asymmetry should make the buyer doubt the correct choice of a car. When making repairs, as a rule, inconspicuous places are left untreated. It is to them that the most attention should be paid.

Check the car for accidents by wine code and other bases

At the moment, there is no single database of accidents on the territory of Russia. At the same time, the existing systems will help to obtain the necessary information about the car, albeit without a 100% guarantee. There are such bases, both public and private.

You can check the car before buying it at the traffic police bases. The State Traffic Inspectorate provides those who wish with information about the cars, including their participation in accidents. You need to look for the necessary information on special Internet resources. The state number of the car, VIN-code or vehicle registration number is entered into the system.

There is a risk of getting caught by scammers when checking a car for an accident through other Internet resources. Prefer better trusted sites and do not use random databases that were first generated by a search engine.

It is easier to check the reputation of a car imported from European countries, since already existing and perfectly working services will provide comprehensive information about the required vehicle.

It is important to understand why you need to check the car for an accident, and not to neglect such a procedure. Professional advice boil down to the following.

1. Checking the integrity of the car painting. This means taking a thickness gauge and determining the places that have been painted.

Many aspects of a car's life can be clarified by identifying repainted parts. If you have identified some painted part of the vehicle with the help of the device, you need to check with the driver what exactly happened to the car.

Signs of an accident that can be detected during the examination of the painting:

• a painted roof indicates a car that overturned in an accident;
• a repainted hood plus two front fenders gives all the prerequisites to assume that the car was hit from the front, which could seriously damage the geometry of the body;
• painting the trunk and both rear fenders most likely indicates a strong blow to the rear of the car;
• special attention should be paid to the paint on the bolts and screws. Wrench marks indicate the removal of the front fenders, hood or trunk lid. Even if such details are repainted again, paint smudges will be visible evenly.

1. Checking the geometry of the body. One of the most important steps in checking a car for an accident. Not a single one, even the highest quality repair, is able to restore the original characteristics of the vehicle. For example, it is unrealistic to adjust the wheel alignment angles on such a car. The windshield will constantly crack for no apparent reason. The safety of such a car is also reduced, since in the event of an accident, the power elements of the body will not be able to take the blow properly.

For an initial check of the geometry, you need to squat near the rear wheel of the car and look at the sideline of the car. Daylight should reflect on the car evenly, without sharp refractions. Irregular lines or distorted light reflection can indicate dents or other damage.

1. Glass condition check. Glasses must be intact and marked. About the changed glasses will not match in marking. If the owner denies the replacement of glass, most likely he wants to hide the accident. The rubber seals must adhere evenly to the glass.
2. All indicators on the dashboard of the car should work well. Only the necessary icons should be lit. Working warning yellow or red icons indicate malfunctions in the vehicle.

Outcome

It is very important to recognize the vehicle in time after an accident. After all, car restoration is very expensive. A good repair will not guarantee the safety of car passengers in the future. The very best experts will not be able to predict the behavior of a vehicle after undergoing major repairs. It is quite easy to check the real condition of the car. For example, he will go to a car repair shop, where, with the help of special equipment, professionals will check the car and give their verdict. The vehicle must be fully diagnosed as it could have been smashed from any side, including the roof.

In the conditions of daily operation of a car in a big city, it is simply impossible to avoid damage to the body. Fenders, bumpers, doors usually suffer. Therefore, you should not be afraid of the car after minor cosmetic repairs, which the seller honestly told about. It is quite another matter when the car is after an accident or assembled from several parts. Checking the car for accidents will help to assess the real condition of the vehicle and make the right decision.