How it works
How to check a used car’s history in Nigeria
Most used cars here are US imports, and the history that matters stays behind in America. Three steps take you from a VIN stamped on a windscreen to the accident, salvage, odometer, customs and theft records for that exact vehicle.
The three steps
- 1
Type the VIN
We decode the seventeen-character VIN against the manufacturer database and show you the make, model, year, engine and assembly plant — free, before any payment. Confirm that what comes back matches the car in front of you.
- 2
Pay in naira
Card, bank transfer or USSD. One payment for one report, or a bundle if you are looking at several cars. No foreign card, no dollar checkout, no subscription.
- 3
Read the report
Every source is queried at once and the report assembles as answers arrive, usually inside a minute. Findings are ranked by how much they should affect your decision, and the whole thing downloads as a PDF you can send to your mechanic.
The six checks, in detail
Three of these do not exist in any foreign report, at any price — because the records they read are Nigerian.
Accident & damage
What was hit, how hard, and whether the damage was structural — with the repair cost where the record has it. Airbag deployment and towing events show up here too, both of which point to an impact heavier than a reseller will admit.
Salvage & branded titles
Whether an insurer declared this car a total loss. Salvage, flood, junk and rebuilt brands, with the state that issued them and the date. A branded title follows a car permanently and is the single largest hit to its value.
Odometer trail
Every recorded reading plotted on one chart. When the mileage goes backwards we flag it — winding back the clock during shipping is the most common fraud on imported cars, and it is invisible on inspection.
Import duty & customsNigeria only
Whether duty was actually paid on this vehicle. Unpaid or falsified duty makes a car liable to seizure, and the liability attaches to the vehicle rather than to whoever imported it. No foreign report covers this.
Registration & plateNigeria only
Whether the registration is current, which state holds it, and when it expires. A plate that does not match the VIN on record is worth stopping over.
Stolen-vehicle checksNigeria only
US theft records and the Nigerian police stolen-vehicle register, both run against the VIN. Buying a stolen car costs you the car and the money, with no recourse against the seller you can no longer find.
What you actually get
A report is a single document about one vehicle, organised so the things that should change your mind sit at the top rather than buried in a date-ordered log.
- Ranked findings. Each one carries a severity, so a structural accident is not presented with the same weight as a routine registration renewal.
- A full history timeline. Every event any source has on the VIN, in order, with the source named.
- The odometer chart. All recorded readings plotted together, which is the fastest way to see a rollback.
- Nigerian status. Customs duty, current registration and the stolen-vehicle result.
- A source ledger. Which sources answered, which did not, and where two of them disagreed.
- A PDF. Forward it to your mechanic, or put it in front of the seller during the price conversation.
Read a complete sample report — unpaywalled, with a real rollback and a branded title in it, because a sample that comes back clean demonstrates nothing.
Why the VIN and not the plate
A plate number can be changed, transferred between vehicles or cloned outright. The VIN is stamped into the car at the factory. Every record worth reading — the American title history, the customs entry, the police register — is filed against the VIN, so that is what we search. If the plate and the VIN describe different cars, that mismatch is itself the most valuable thing the check can tell you.
Where to find the VIN on the car
When two sources disagree
Two databases will report different mileage, or a different model year, for the same VIN more often than you would expect. We show the most authoritative answer and keep the conflicting one visible rather than quietly picking a winner. A disagreement about make, model or year can mean a cloned or re-stamped VIN — that is a finding, not noise to be tidied away.
What a report cannot do
Records only exist where somebody filed them. A car rebuilt in a back street after an accident nobody reported leaves no trace in any database on earth, and a report on that car will come back clean. What you are buying is the documented history — strong evidence, and far more than you had before, but not a guarantee and not a substitute for putting the car on a lift with a mechanic you chose yourself.
Start with the VIN
The decode is free and instant. You only pay when you decide you want the history behind it.
17 characters, on the dashboard at the base of the windscreen, the driver’s door frame, or the vehicle papers. Checking the VIN is free — you only pay for the history.