Free used-car checker
Know what to check before you buy this exact car
Pick a car by make, model and year, or paste its VIN. You get a checklist built from what owners of that car reported to the authorities: recalls to verify, symptoms to test on the drive, where it fails the UK MOT, and the questions to ask the seller.
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How the checklist is built
Recalls to verify
Every safety recall on that model year from NHTSA, plus UK DVSA and EU Safety Gate recalls where they exist. You check the car's own VIN to see which are still open; the repair is free.
Symptoms to test
The problems owners of that exact model year reported most, found by reading every complaint filed with NHTSA, each with a safe way to check for it at the viewing and a question for the seller.
MOT weak spots
For cars tested in Great Britain: the first-time failure rate for that model and age, and the areas it fails on, from the DVSA's anonymised MOT results.
Nothing invented
No reliability scores, no repair prices, no guesses. Counts are a starting point: popular cars collect more complaints because more are on the road. CarHooq is not a mechanic.
Questions about the checker
Where does the checklist come from?
From official data only: complaints owners filed with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), NHTSA recalls, UK DVSA recalls and anonymised MOT test results, and EU Safety Gate alerts. CarHooq reads the complaint text to find the symptoms owners of each model year report most, then pairs each with a practical check and a seller question.
Can I check a car by VIN?
Yes. Paste the 17-character VIN and the page decodes it into make, model and model year using NHTSA's free vehicle decoder, then loads that car's checklist. The VIN itself is sent only to NHTSA for decoding and is not stored by CarHooq. To see which recalls are still open on that specific car, use the VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls.
Does a long checklist mean the car is bad?
No. Best-selling cars collect more complaints because there are more of them on the road, and NHTSA does not verify individual reports. Use the list to know what to test and ask; compare model years of a similar age; and get a pre-purchase inspection for anything you cannot check yourself.
Does CarHooq tell me what the car is worth or what a repair costs?
No. CarHooq has no price or repair-cost data and does not invent any. It shows what owners reported, what recalls say, and how often the car fails its MOT.
Sources
NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation recall and complaint databases (public domain); NHTSA vPIC vehicle decoder; DVSA anonymised MOT tests and results and DVSA vehicle recalls (Open Government Licence v3.0); EU Safety Gate alerts (© European Union). Updated November 2, 2026. How CarHooq reports are made.