What's Included in a Free Car Check?
Free car checks in Ireland are typically a "lite" version of a full vehicle history report. They pull data from publicly available or low-cost official sources to give you a basic snapshot of the vehicle.
CarScan.ie's free check includes:
- Vehicle identity: Make, model, year, engine size, colour, body type — confirming the basic spec matches what the seller is claiming.
- NCT status: Whether the car has a valid NCT and when it expires. Useful for knowing immediately if you'll be facing an NCT bill.
- Motor tax status: Whether the car is currently taxed and when the tax expires.
- Registration details: First registration date, country of origin, and current Irish registration.
This takes about 10 seconds. No account required. Just enter the reg plate.
What a Free Check Doesn't Cover
Here's where people get caught out. A free check is a starting point — not a full history report. It does not include:
- Outstanding finance: The single most important check before buying. Not included in any free tier from any reputable provider, because finance data costs money to access.
- MIAFTR write-off check: Insurance write-off history requires a paid query of the MIAFTR register.
- Mileage verification: Cross-referencing historical mileage records to detect clocking.
- Ownership history: How many owners the car has had and when it changed hands.
- Stolen vehicle check: Whether the car is recorded as stolen on Garda or insurer databases.
- Valuation: Current market value based on make, model, year, and mileage.
In other words, a free check tells you what the car is. A paid check tells you whether the car is safe to buy.
How Does CarScan.ie Compare to Other Paid Services?
The main players in the Irish vehicle check market are Cartell, Motorcheck, and MyVehicle. All of them offer paid history reports with broadly similar data sources.
CarScan.ie differentiates on price and clarity. A full history report starts at €5, compared to €14.99 or more from larger providers. The report includes a plain-language Safe-to-Buy rating — green, amber, or red — so you get an immediate signal, not just a wall of data to interpret yourself.
For buyers who want to run a quick pre-screening on multiple cars before deciding which one to inspect in person, the lower price point makes a real practical difference.
When Is a Free Check Enough?
A free check is genuinely useful in a few situations:
- Confirming basic identity: If someone sends you a reg plate and you want to verify the car is what they say it is before bothering to go view it.
- NCT and tax: If you want to quickly know whether a car is taxed and tested before you drive it off (e.g. a car you've been loaned or are considering buying from a family member).
- Dealer cars: With a registered dealer, you have more legal protection — though a full check is still worth running for peace of mind.
For any private sale where you're spending more than a few hundred euro — upgrade to a paid report. The €5 to €15 cost is completely trivial against the risk of buying a car with €8,000 of finance attached, or one that was previously a Category S write-off.
How CarScan.ie's Free Check Works
No account needed. No payment required. Just enter the Irish registration number on the CarScan.ie homepage and you'll see the free check result within seconds.
If the result flags anything unusual — or if you decide you want the full picture before committing — upgrading to a Standard or Premium report takes a single click. Reports are delivered instantly and stored for 90 days so you can access them again without re-paying.
Bottom Line
A free car check is a useful first step but not a substitute for a full history check when buying a used car. The free check tells you the car exists, is what it claims to be, and has a valid NCT. It won't tell you whether someone owes money on it, whether it was in a serious accident, or whether the mileage has been tampered with.
Run the free check first. If the basic details match up and you're still interested, spend €5 on the full report before you spend €5,000 — or €15,000 — on the car.