Car Analytics vs Car Advert Check at a glance
Two tables, both read off Car Analytics’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 |
| Car Analytics | 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 |
| Car Analytics | £10.99 (Full Check); £2.99 (Basic Check) | Specifications, VED, MOT history, mileage records, CO2, export status, engine, fuel, type approval, V5C issue date, safety recall alerts, year, fuel economy, ULEZ | £10,000 (Full Check) |
Prices and features checked on 17 September 2026, read off each provider's own site. Providers change them; tell us if one has.
Where Car Analytics beats us
Sells an OEM service-history lookup and a previous-adverts lookup, both of which we do not, and states a £10,000 guarantee. It’s the one to buy for add-ons nobody else sells: OEM service history and previous adverts.
Car Analytics is the old hand in a young field, and it has built a menu around the check: an OEM service-history lookup, a "previously seen adverts" lookup, retail market data and previous searches, each as a paid add-on. The service-history lookup is worth knowing about, because a digital service record by registration is something we don't do at all. The previous-adverts add-on is advert history, what the car was listed for before, not a reading of the advert you're looking at now. The homepage's quoted "full check" price is a customer quote; the price page carries the figure in our table.
Its sample report lists the raw advisories with no analysis, and nothing on the site describes reading the advert. That's our side of the line: we don't sell service history or past adverts, and we do read the live advert against the MOT record and the known faults. If you want the service record, buy that add-on. If you want to know whether the advert matches the car, run our free scan on it.
What Car Analytics 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
- Specifications, VED, MOT history, mileage records, CO2, export status, engine, fuel, type approval, V5C issue date, safety recall alerts, year, fuel economy, ULEZ
- One full check
- £10.99 (Full Check); £2.99 (Basic Check)
- Multi-check or packs
- Three checks £19.99; five checks £29.99 (£6 each, was £4.99 each on 2026-09-17); add-ons: service history £10.99 (£7.99 with a check), Market Check (advert history and previous searches) £10.99 (£7.99 with a check), EV Check £14.99; bulk from £2.70 a report
- Data guarantee
- £10,000 (Full Check)
- Sources it names
- DVLA; DVSA; TfL; Experian; Police National Computer; insurance records; OEM service history providers
What its pages describe beyond the lookup: The 'Previously Seen Adverts' add-on returns historic listings for the plate, which is advert history, not a reading of the advert in front of the buyer. Sample report lists raw advisories with no analysis.
Read off Car Analytics’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 Car Analytics.
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 Car Analytics 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.