AutoTrader check vs Car Advert Check at a glance
Two tables, both read off AutoTrader vehicle check’s own site. The first is the job we rank on: what the check does with the records. “No” means nothing on their site describes it, not that they can’t.
| Provider | Reads the advert | MOT advisory analysis | Known faults with costs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Car Advert CheckOur pick | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| AutoTrader vehicle check | No | No | No |
Prices and features checked on 17 September 2026, read off each provider's own site: “No” means nothing on their site describes it. Providers change them; tell us if one has.
| Provider | One full check | Free tier | Data guarantee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Car Advert CheckOur pick | See pricing | Free scan: reads the advert against the DVSA MOT history, verdict, risk score and biggest finding, no card and no password | None stated |
| AutoTrader vehicle check | £6.95 per check (a 27-point report in the hero, a 26-point check in the FAQ, on the same page) | A five-point check on every listed car (stolen, scrapped, written off, imported, exported), shown on the advert itself | £30,000 |
Prices and features checked on 17 September 2026, read off each provider's own site. Providers change them; tell us if one has.
Where AutoTrader check beats us
Every AutoTrader advert already carries a free stolen, scrapped, write-off, import and export screen, which is more than a Facebook listing gives you. It’s the one to buy for a free screen on every AutoTrader listing without asking.
Treat AutoTrader's own check as the venue's house check, because that's what it is. The free screen on every listing covers recorded catastrophes, stolen, scrapped, written off, imported, exported, and stops there: finance sits in the paid tier, which carries a guarantee. The same page describes the paid check as a 26-point check in one place and a 27-point report in another, so go by the price rather than the count. AutoTrader's buying advice is sound, general advice too. What it structurally can't do is teach you to read a dealer's advert sceptically, because the dealer is its paying customer.
Our link path can't read an AutoTrader page, which is ordinary anti-bot behaviour on a large commercial site rather than anything aimed at us, so the method is to copy the advert text or take a screenshot and paste it into the free scan. It reads the description against the car's MOT advisory history and the known faults for that engine, and tells you the biggest thing to worry about before you've messaged the seller. Use AutoTrader's screen for the catastrophes, and ours for the advert.
What AutoTrader vehicle check describes on its own site
Straight from the pages listed under Sources, with nothing filled in from anywhere else. Where the site didn’t show something, the row says so rather than guessing.
- Free tier
- A five-point check on every listed car (stolen, scrapped, written off, imported, exported), shown on the advert itself
- One full check
- £6.95 per check (a 27-point report in the hero, a 26-point check in the FAQ, on the same page)
- Multi-check or packs
- None advertised
- Data guarantee
- £30,000
- Sources it names
- "the police database, DVLA" (their wording), plus insurers and lenders
Read off AutoTrader vehicle check’s own site on 23 October 2026.
What Car Advert Check does with the same records
Start with what’s the same. Our outstanding finance, theft and write-off lookups come from the same places as everyone else’s: the lenders, the police and the insurers’ write-off register. Nobody holds a private source, and we’re not selling better records than AutoTrader check.
What’s different is what happens next. A plate lookup stops at the registration. Ours carries on and reads three things no lookup takes in: the advert you’re looking at, the car’s whole DVSA MOT advisory history, and our known-faults database for that model, with what each fault costs to put right. Then it gives you one verdict instead of a page of fields, and outstanding finance, a theft marker or a write-off sends that verdict straight to its highest risk rating, because none of those is something you negotiate around.
Where it earns its keep is a car that comes back clean on the registers. A standard check stops there and the car looks fine. Ours keeps going: if the advert says “full service history”, the MOT record shows the same suspension advisory three years running and the engine is one with a known fault at this age, the report says the description doesn’t match the car’s own record, what the fault would cost, and what to ask before you travel.
What it won’t do: we offer no data guarantee, we can’t see a car’s history from before it came to the UK, we don’t sell a car’s past adverts, and nothing we or anyone else sells can see accident damage that never became a claim or how well a repair was done. Those take your eyes and a ramp.
So which should you run?
You’ve got an advert open and you’re deciding whether it’s worth the drive. Run the free scan on that advert. It reads the wording against the car’s DVSA MOT history and tells you the biggest thing to worry about, with no card and no password.
You’re about to hand money over. Upgrade that report to the Provenance Check. It adds the outstanding finance, theft and write-off records, scores them in with everything else, and includes the Smart Check, so the seller questions and a figure to negotiate with come with it.
You need what AutoTrader check does that we don’t. Buy it. The section above says what that is, and we’d rather you had the right check than ours.
You lose nothing by starting free: the free report upgrades on the same link with no re-run, so you never paste the advert twice, and if the free scan already says walk away, you’ve saved yourself the rest.