Knowing the history of your car is vital to understanding your car's potential lifespan and if it’s reliable. In order to make this nice and simple for us, the gov.uk website has an online portal where you can input any vehicle registration and it’ll present the MOT history to you. Best of all, it’s completely free to use. 

The site gives detailed information of the car’s previous MOT results; 

-providing the dates of previous tests

-MOT test number

-Recorded mileage at the time of the test

-You can also view the test certificate and test location if you have the latest V5C number

Dangerous defects such as tyre bulges, major defects including worn suspension and advisories like worn brake discs are all noted down too. This is all important when looking back to see if your vehicle has failed for the same reason multiple times and it’s something you need to keep your eye on. But most important of all, it tells you if it passed or failed. 

It is important to ensure that a car's history is as expected and that it meets the requirements to be legally driven on UK roads when you buy it. The same holds true for determining the vehicle tax. Again, all you need is the vehicle registration number, you input this on the gov website, and it’ll then check if the model and colour is correct. 

The service allows you to see if the vehicle is taxed or has a SORN (statutory off road notice), CO2 emissions, as well as the MOT status. If you have the latest 11 digit reference number from the V5C registration certificate (logbook) you can also view the tax rates for the vehicle.

If you’re planning on buying a used car, it’s sensible to check it has an up to date MOT (usually a year), and if not you’ll need to prioritise that. After doing so, it’s time to pay for tax, which you can usually supplement by buying 6 months or a full year by direct debit.