CarCostCheck vs Car Advert Check at a glance
Two tables, both read off CarCostCheck’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 |
| CarCostCheck | No | In part | In part |
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 |
| CarCostCheck | £4.99 (Premium history check) | MOT and tax status, full MOT history, mileage verification, reliability score (0 to 100), running costs and MPG, CO2 and tax band, common faults, recall check | None stated |
Prices and features checked on 17 September 2026, read off each provider's own site. Providers change them; tell us if one has.
Where CarCostCheck beats us
Cheaper than us, publishes its scoring method, and its free tier already shows common faults and recalls. It’s the one to buy for a cheap check with an MOT-derived reliability score and a generous free tier.
CarCostCheck is one of the 2026 entrants, and it has done something most of the field hasn't: written down its method. Its about page says the health score uses advisory trends, recurring issues, mileage consistency and neglect signals, and that repair costs are derived from the MOT advisory history mapped to typical garage prices. Its free tier shows common fault patterns for the make and model and a recall check, and its paid check is among the cheapest in our table. It's cheaper than us and it says more about its working than most.
Where it stops is the advert. Everything CarCostCheck describes starts from the plate, and its fault list is general to the model with no per-fault cost. Ours reads the seller's description against the MOT record and prices the specific known faults that apply to this engine at this age. If you want a cheap MOT-derived score, CarCostCheck is a fair pick. If you want the advert read against it, run our free scan first.
What CarCostCheck 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
- MOT and tax status, full MOT history, mileage verification, reliability score (0 to 100), running costs and MPG, CO2 and tax band, common faults, recall check
- One full check
- £4.99 (Premium history check)
- Multi-check or packs
- £6.99 (history check plus valuation); valuation alone £2.99
- Data guarantee
- None stated
- Sources it names
- DVSA MOT History API; DVLA Vehicle Enquiry Service; Experian AutoCheck; PNC via MIAFTR; finance houses
What its pages describe beyond the lookup: About page: the health score uses advisory trends, recurring issues, mileage consistency and neglect signals, and repair costs are derived from MOT advisory history mapped to typical UK garage prices. Report lists common fault patterns for the make and model with no per-fault repair cost.
Read off CarCostCheck’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 CarCostCheck.
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 CarCostCheck 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.