RAC car check vs Car Advert Check at a glance
Two tables, both read off RAC Car Data 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 |
| RAC Car Data Check | No | No | 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 |
| RAC Car Data Check | £14.99 (Full Check); £9.98 (Basic Check) | Make, model, colour and engine size, registration date, current MOT expiry | £30,000 on qualifying claims, two years, safety recalls excluded |
Prices and features checked on 17 September 2026, read off each provider's own site. Providers change them; tell us if one has.
Where RAC car check beats us
Same HPI data as the market leader at a lower price, plus RAC's own breakdown-frequency categories. It’s the one to buy for HPI data under a breakdown brand, with common-failure categories.
The RAC is open about what it sells: the same HPI records, at a lower single price than HPI charged when we read both, with a guarantee attached and the RAC's name on top. Its Full Check adds a "common failures" section for the make, model and year, which is a nice idea. When we read the sample report it was ten generic breakdown categories, battery, alternator, brakes and so on, with symptoms and no repair costs, so it's a nudge rather than a diagnosis. The sample's MOT history lists the pass and fail dates and the mileage, with no advisory text.
That advisory text is where we start. Our report reads every advisory the car has ever had, looks for the ones that keep coming back, checks the advert's claims against them and against the known faults for that engine, and gives you one verdict. If a trusted brand and a guarantee are what you want, the RAC's is a fair buy. If you want to know whether the advert matches the car, that's ours.
What RAC Car Data 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
- Make, model, colour and engine size, registration date, current MOT expiry
- One full check
- £14.99 (Full Check); £9.98 (Basic Check)
- Multi-check or packs
- Multi Check £29.97
- Data guarantee
- £30,000 on qualifying claims, two years, safety recalls excluded
- Sources it names
- Powered by HPI (their wording); RAC breakdown data; DVLA; Police National Computer
What its pages describe beyond the lookup: Full Check includes a 'Common failures' section: the most common issues for the make, model and year with symptoms, but it is ten generic breakdown categories (battery, alternator, brakes) with no repair costs. The sample MOT history lists pass/fail dates and mileage with no advisory text.
Read off RAC Car Data 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 RAC car 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 RAC car 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.