www.cartell.ie - Vehicle records -check it out !

MercMad

Have you heard about this site yet ?

I heard the add on my way home and decided to have a look. You can get everything from NCT due dates, tax due dates to service history and HPI reports !

Seems pretty good....................obviously it needs to ghet better but it probably will and may help buyers of used cars !

Abelloid

About time too;)

kluivert

Heard it on the radio this morning so had a look and it seems pretty ok. i put in my own details (Star 2) and the details where spot on it would.

No mileage record from the last NCT and if it was linked to main approved dealers they would be able to track the mileage from each service to ensure that clocking of cars was kept to a minimum.

Fair play to them its about time.

kikel

Cool, says 2 star report is free. but they still want CC details???????

What company is running it.

Alun

No Vehicle Found For That Registration Number

... for two different cars.

EDIT: Remove the "-" in between the letters and numbers, and it works. Sloppy programming.

fletch

kikel wrote:

Cool, says 2 star report is free. but they still want CC details???????

What company is running it.

It doesn't actually ask you to input the CC details, just need an email address

Juan Pablo

Very impressive. However, it states the NCT due date as last Feb for my car, which was done so it appears to be a little out of date. About time Irish car buyers had access to something like this, the taxi/commercial vehicle is a handy feature.

BrianD3

Very interesting. I'm off to check reg numbers of cars the family used to own years ago to see if any have survived the scrapman

crosstownk

I just put in a reg of a car that was written of last year and it lists the car as - "This vehicle is not recorded as Written Off".

Hmmmmm.........

Guy:Incognito

The details on mine hav'nt been updated, still says 2 owners and says the nct was up in january, but I put it through the nct in early april.

The missus bought a 00 scenic a few weeks back and the log book (vlc) says it has one previous owner, whereas this site says it has 2 and that it was sold on 27 jan last year. I'm going to assume the vlc is correct?

HEHEEH , it gives details for our old early 80's fiat mirafiori. It's down as a fiat 131, i assume it's the same thing.

Stephen

It thinks my Hyundai Coupe is a Lantra?? Oh, and apparently it has 3 seats and 0 axles!
It did, however get the date of sale right. Still has tax as being out of date, even though it was renewed about 3 weeks ago.

damo605

Stephen wrote:

Oh, and apparently it has 3 seats and 0 axles!

I've 6 axles but no doors

Guy:Incognito

I have 4 seats, 5 doors and no axles.

testicle

Stephen wrote:

It thinks my Hyundai Coupe is a Lantra?? Oh, and apparently it has 3 seats and 0 axles!
It did, however get the date of sale right. Still has tax as being out of date, even though it was renewed about 3 weeks ago.

My sisters Hyundai Coupe is on the VLC as a Lantra Coupe

Ernie Ball

Mine was accurate, except for the 0 axles.

By the way: you don't have to give them any personal information if you don't want. Leave everything blank except the e-mail address. And you can put a fake e-mail address if you're worried about spam.

unkel

Very useful!

All info on my car was correct except the axles

Blinder

hmmm,
Traded in my 00 car last year with a dealer
This is what shows on the site

Last Date of Sale: 20-jun-2005
Tax Expiry Date: 30-jun-2005
This Vehicle is recorded as SCRAPPED VEHICLE DESTROYED

So the tax expiry date is for tax I had done.
So either the dealer scrapped it ( which seems strange, since it was selling at the time for €10,000 and he had someone interested in looking at it when I was trading it in) or someody bought it and wrote it off nearly straight away!! :eek:

BrianD3

Checked several of my family's old cars from the 80s and early 90s. Not surprisingly all appear to have been scrapped. Although none of them are recorded as being scrapped or written off, when you see that the car was last taxed 10 years ago it is a pretty good indication that the car is a goner. I find this a bit saddening

maidhc

BrianD3 wrote:

Although none of them are recorded as being scrapped or written off, when you see that the car was last taxed 10 years ago it is a pretty good indication that the car is a goner. I find this a bit saddening

I noticed the same thing! They are probably blocking a gap somewhere or else disposed of informally.

Interestingly I checked up a tractor I own that was written off by its previous owner after falling off a cliff (no one killed thankfully). It doesn't make any reference to the fact it was once written off even though I bought if for scrap value from the insurance co and repaired it.

fletch

Anybody know where they actually source their data from?

maidhc

The National Vehicle and Driver File.

I havn't figured out how they are entitled to access to it yet, but I will.

unkel

BrianD3 wrote:

Checked several of my family's old cars from the 80s and early 90s

Stop doing that, the site has grounded to a halt now

BrianD3

unkel wrote:

Stop doing that, the site has grounded to a halt now

LOL I noticed that it started to crash alright. I'd say they're getting some serious traffic. I know I've already checked at least 30 cars since I spotted this thread.

crosstownk

BrianD3 wrote:

LOL I noticed that it started to crash alright. I'd say they're getting some serious traffic. I know I've already checked at least 30 cars since I spotted this thread.

Me too:D

It doesn't seem to have some of Dads old cars that he had years go - like his 1974 Cortina!!

zilog_jones

Pretty intersting site, but doesn't seem that accurate. Just checked with an uncle's old '85 Carina (sold about 11 years ago - for some reason I never forgot the reg!), and it says it was never a taxi even though it defaintely was.

deadl0ck

Pretty intersting site, but doesn't seem that accurate. Just checked with an uncle's old '85 Carina (sold about 11 years ago - for some reason I never forgot the reg!), and it says it was never a taxi even though it defaintely was.

Maybe your uncle never registered it as a taxi....:cool:

zilog_jones

Yeah, wouldn't be surprised.

Wow, the site's not responding at all now! I guess I'm not the only one wasting lunch time looking up every reg I can think of ^_^

BrianD3

I've put in a few pre 87 regs, from what I can see the system seems to have regs from about 1980-81 onwards but I'm not sure about earlier ones. I entered a few which I would have thought would be valid regs but they came up as not found.

Also, there are plenty of newer numbers that are not in the the system either. I picked out some random numbers to see what would come up but they came up as not found. Whether they were never issued in the first place or are omissions I don't know
Eg 93WH500 is not there

smash

no mileage history so the reports aren't much good yet

peasant

Well ...the system is only as good as the information that is in it.

Take my campervan for example. From the day of first registration (import) they had it down as a VW GOLF motorcaravan. I asked several times to have that corrected, without success.

The cartell site does say it was imported, it doesn't list previous owners or previous reg's ...even though that information was all available at import.

Some bureaucrat in shannon just couldn't be bothered to enter it.


Now I looked at a Merc 7 Seater Estate from carzone.
Cartell lists that car as Unknown Make, Unknown Type, 2 seater van, taxed as private vehicle ...

Now ...is that Merc a really dodgy car or did someone in Shannon mess up when it was imported from the UK ???

Basically, you're as wise as you were before cartell

dahamsta

Not a bad site, something Ireland's been seriously lacking, and hopefully it'll improve over time. Unfortunate choice of name though. Is it a bad pun, or did they just not see it?

BrianD3

Not a surprise that the database has errors. It's inevitable that humans make errors when doing paperwork or entering data into computers. I'd say many of the errors in the cartell database are due to dealers not getting the details right when registering new cars for customers. Eg one of our cars has its colour listed as grey instead of silver. Individual owners often won't be bothered informing the authorities of minor errors such as this so they never get fixed.

I still think the cartell database is fascinating and from what i've seen it's pretty accurate. I'd say the data in it is a lot more accurate than say the data in electoral registers maintained by local authorities. Electoral registers = can of worms

As someone mentioned in the classic cars forum it would be cool if you could search the cartell by make/model to see how many cars of a certain type were registered or survive etc.

I know myself from picking out random numbers that the Toyota Corolla, Carina, Avensis etc. are even more popular in this country than I thought. It seems like every 2nd registration that I've picked out belongs to a Toyota. This is one major reason why if you see a 15-20 year old car still on the road it's likely to be a Toyota as so many were bought in the first place. Of course Toyota longeveity and reliabiliity plays a part also.

zilog_jones

Yeah, so far any wrong number I put in by mistake ended up being a Toyota or Nissan!

From what I can see the records go as far back as whenever the NNN XXX (1-3 numbers, 3 letters) plates came into existance. For example, Limerick city was "TI" on the old system - If i put in anything with "xTI NNN" (dunno if it existed) or "NNNN TI" (which was used around '79-'81) I get nothing, but even "1 ATI" gets me something - a 1982 Mazda "Other" ^_^. I dunno about old Dublin plates as they were all over the place by 80's with their Z's and stuff.

It would be interesting to see what turns up if a pre-NNN XXX plate that's still on the road is put in...

Also, it seems they're a bit lacking regarding information about imports. I looked up my friend's Nissan March, and it said the original Japanese reg was "599SO1480", which is useless without saying what place in Japan it was registered in!

Abelloid

I've got a couple of early '70s numbers no problem.

BrianD3

Looks like the site is down now for "upgrading". I wonder when it comes back will the free 2 star check be gone. The normal price for the 2 star seems to be 25 euros per check which seems v. dear IMO.

Spit62500

fletch wrote:

It doesn't actually ask you to input the CC details, just need an email address

A one star report lists the make but incorrectly identifies the model. A two start report is 25€ - I don't see any worthwhile free options....

peasant

No, the free option has disappeared.

Personally, I wouldn't pay the 25 Euro. Well ...maybe after having seen the car, if I'm in doubt. But as a pre-check its too expensive / too little information for the money.

unkel

peasant wrote:

No, the free option has disappeared.

Personally, I wouldn't pay the 25 Euro

Neither would I

SouperComputer

yea, its a bit of a rip alright. Id say overall they would have better sales if it was priced at €5.

Stephen

The €40 one with the finance check might be worth it when you're buying privately though.

5500

Stephen wrote:

The €40 one with the finance check might be worth it when you're buying privately though.

Isnt there a number you can ring for HPI checks and you'l be told for free over the phone if theres anything outstanding on it?

25e seems way too expensive,in comparison to the uk hpi check its years behind and way overpriced imo

Ratchet

yeah , overpriced like hell and you never gonna get full service history of the car and minimum info about jap imports

bogmanfan

How accurate are these? I entered the reg of a car I'm about to buy. It's an 01 reg. Dealer lists it as 1 previous owner. The report from Cartell lists the date of first registration, and a subsequent date of sale in March 05. Therefore, 2 previous owners. Before I ring dealer all irate, anyone else found mistakes? Everything else checked out - colour, NCT date etc.

Funxy

I believe it lists a trade in to a dealer as a previous owner as well. As the dealer is in a way buying the car off the previous owner, then he is listed as the second on the records. Thats my guess when i entered an old car of mine and had an unusually high number of owners in the time after me but then again i traded it into the dealer too