Free Car Checks

Submitted by: Gareth Oakley

Website: http://www.freecarcheck.org/

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

This service would query the various vehicle databases kept by goverment departments and assemble a report with a relatively full history of a vehicle. Other companies charge for this service and add value - but basics of "Is a car reported stolen" really ought to be made available to the public to help cut vehicle crime.
The service could also allow users to report a vehicle stolen themselves - quicker to show than data from the police which may be out of date (see below)

What information or services do you need?

The DVLA and VOSA make a lot of information available about car registrations via their websites, but there is no free way of checking if a vehicle is stolen on the web. The US is about to make this data available freely - why can't we? As a worst case resort some agreement could be made with the police to receive a regularly updated list of cars reported stolen - other commercial organisations can already get this.