Car history query

adocholiday

Hi all,

Just wondering about the history of a car I'm looking at buying. It's on NI plates but buying from a dealer here. I did the RSA UK history check online and it said that the car has had 1 plate change, is imported, and has 0 previous owners. The car is not VRT'd yet so this is purely UK history.

The car was bought new in Bedford, and the history check says that the car was registered in March 2010, and I presume this means under its most recent plate. Could it be that the plate change was from when the car was bought in England, but imported to NI? That would account for there being 0 previous owners too. There is no recorded mileage under the RSA history either, however the car is MOT'd until March so I think it's strange that there's nothing there. I've verified the service history though and the mileage seems legit. The dealer assures me that the car is perfect and is offering a 1 year full warranty on it.

Just not sure if this is a suspicious history that I should run a mile from, I've no experience dealing with UK cars.

Supergurrier

Google motchecker and enter details there to see if any milage history there (it's free and records a few recent years worth of milage history)

Car is probably on a custom plate owner bought

adocholiday

Supergurrier wrote: »

Google motchecker and enter details there to see if any milage history there (it's free and records a few recent years worth of milage history)

Car is probably on a custom plate owner bought

That doesn't work for NI cars, just England, Scotland and Wales but the tax checker gov site says MOT until March.

The plate on the car now is just 3 random letters and 4 numbers that look common to the area the car was in

bazz26

What does the accompanying service history documentation say? Did you ring the garages that are listed in the service history? Any documentation with the car that might contain the original registration?

If there is no way to trace the car's registration or history then I'd walk away, there are plenty of fish in the sea so no need to be stuck on one that asks more questions than answers.

adocholiday

bazz26 wrote: »

What does the accompanying service history documentation say? Did you ring the garages that are listed in the service history? Any documentation with the car that might contain the original registration?

If there is no way to trace the car's registration or history then I'd walk away, there are plenty of fish in the sea so no need to be stuck on one that asks more questions than answers.

The service history is all from the same garage who I called to verify. Servicing was regular and the mileage recorded at each service was consistent. I haven't bought the car yet so have no documentation to hand. The dealer selling the car knew where it was bought new though and seems to have all of the necessary paper work. I just wanted to do all the checks myself.

R.O.R

adocholiday wrote: »

The service history is all from the same garage who I called to verify. Servicing was regular and the mileage recorded at each service was consistent. I haven't bought the car yet so have no documentation to hand. The dealer selling the car knew where it was bought new though and seems to have all of the necessary paper work. I just wanted to do all the checks myself.

If it was bought in Bedford it probably got a GB reg number and was changed to NI plates when it went there, just so it didn't stick out.

Anjobe

adocholiday wrote: »

That doesn't work for NI cars, just England, Scotland and Wales but the tax checker gov site says MOT until March.

The plate on the car now is just 3 random letters and 4 numbers that look common to the area the car was in

Sounds like a standard NI reg. The plate change is almost certainly a result of the car having been brought to NI from elsewhere in the UK - when a car that was previously registered in the UK is first taxed in NI the owner has a choice of keeping the original UK reg or be assigned a new NI one.

I think the likes of Cartell can give a history across a UK->NI plate change. I bought a car in NI in 2008 that was originally sold in England and had no trouble getting a complete history (pretty sure it was from Cartell).