Where our data comes from

MOT history, mileage and advisories

The DVSA MOT History API, the official Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency dataset, used under the Open Government Licence. It covers England, Scotland and Wales: cars, vans and motorcycles since 2005, and HGVs, trailers, buses and coaches from their own test regimes. Northern Ireland MOTs are administered by the DVA and are not included. We show the record as DVSA returns it; nothing is edited.

Outstanding recall flag

Also from the DVSA record. Many manufacturers supply DVSA with recall data daily; the rest is updated monthly through the SMMT, the manufacturers’ trade body. The flag says whether a recall is outstanding, not which one, and a clear flag is a good sign rather than a guarantee, because not every manufacturer supplies data yet. For detail we point at the official GOV.UK recall checker.

The buyer score and buyer report

Our own arithmetic on the DVSA record, with the working shown: mileage consistency, gaps, failure rate, dangerous defects and repeated advisories. It is not a DVSA rating and not a mechanical inspection, and both the scorecard page and every report say so.

ULEZ and clean air zone estimates

Estimated from the fuel type and first registration date in the DVSA record, because the actual Euro standard is not published in that dataset. We call it an estimate everywhere it appears and link the official TfL checker for the definitive answer.

National statistics in our guides

DVSA official statistics releases on GOV.UK, reproduced under the Open Government Licence with the test year stated. The full tables live in our MOT statistics guide. Journalists and researchers are welcome to quote our tables with attribution; the underlying data is DVSA’s and the licence is open.

What we do not have

Outstanding finance, insurance write-off categories, police stolen markers and keeper history are not public data. They sit in licensed commercial and police databases, and no free checker has them, whatever its marketing implies. What a paid report covering them would look like is set out honestly on the full history check page.