When you buy a car, pay attention to the condition of the body. It should not look like it has just been painted and welded. The body should be perfectly smooth and not have any swollen parts. Details and gaps between them must be the same on one side and the other.
To check the gaps on the doors is to open and shake the door. So you will understand what condition it is in. If, nevertheless, the door was removed, then it will hang out and “walk”. Taking a mirror and a flashlight to help, inspect the internal gaps.
Inspection should be carried out only in good light
You need to look at the condition of the car in good lighting. If you look in a dark room, you may not notice that the details may differ in color.
Also, do not inspect the machine in bright sunlight. A shadow can backfire.
How to determine if the car was in an accident using a special tool
To check the thickness paintwork car, you need a special device with which you can determine whether the car was in an accident. If there is one, then it is better to use it. All parts of the machine should be approximately the same thickness. If a layer of putty is applied, only then small deviations are allowed. If it is not possible to use such a device, do not be discouraged! An ordinary magnet will help you. It will not stick to the place where there is putty.
Consider all the nuances
Don't forget to look under wheel arches, if there are oil stains on the shock absorbers, it is possible that very soon you will be forced to change them. This service is quite expensive.
AlexWhen buying a used car, a potential owner may have doubts about accident-free driving seller. He has the right to check the presence of an accident by law, policy compulsory insurance or by the VIN of the car. The availability of such information will answer the question of real mileage transport, whether he was arrested by a court decision, whether he is wanted and whether he was damaged in an accident.
All information about issued OSAGO policies is stored in the PCA database. And if earlier, by changing the insurer, it was possible to hide a message, for example, about an accident, today this data is available.
How can I find out if my car has been in an accident? When calculating insurance, various coefficients are used, including CBM (bonus-malus), which varies from class 1 to class 15. A citizen who just got behind the wheel of a car will receive class 3 and a coefficient of 1. Subsequently, with accident-free driving, this value will definitely decrease, and the class will grow. That is, in a year he will have grade 4, and the coefficient is 0.95. When a driver becomes a participant in an accident, or rather, his culprit, the class is automatically reduced, as well as the coefficient. Be sure to ask the seller in between times what discount he has for OSAGO - this will indirectly confirm or refute your fears.
As a rule, such an accident check is needed by employers who are considering a potential driver.
You can find out by OSAGO information about whether a car has been in an accident, but for this you need to know:
- driving license information;
- full name of the citizen;
- date of his birth.
To check in the required form, selected on the PCA website, in the OSAGO tab, section "Information for policyholders and victims", you must fill in the proposed empty fields and click the search button.
How to find out about an accident by the VIN number of a car
The VIN of the car is its identifier and is usually located in the following places:
- under the hood;
- near windshield(in the lower part);
- on the doors;
- in the cabin.
You can find it in the documentation for the car. To do this, ask the owner of the car to provide you with a PTS or STS, and then take the necessary information from here.
Checking by number is used in the case of purchasing a used vehicle. If external signs damage cannot be determined, but doubts still remain, then the interested citizen has the right to use the traffic police service "Vehicle Check". When entering the identification data of the machine, control will be carried out, including participation in a traffic accident.
The second option for obtaining information is the Autohistory service on the Autocode website, where you can also find out the entire history of ownership and operation of the car when you indicate the number and data on the certificate for the car.
Another option is to contact the State Services portal and visit the car check website. When entering the VIN, data will appear on the restrictions that have been imposed on the car and have not yet been removed (accident, search).
How to check for an accident by driver's license number
According to driving license you can get information about whether people selling cars got into an accident. Since rights are tied to a person, and not to a car, we will talk about a specific subject, because during his life he can drive different cars.
What are the ways to get information?
- Portal Autocode.
- Traffic police service for checking a driver's license. It allows you to find out whether a person was involved in an accident or not. You need to enter the series and number of the document, as well as the date of issue. The system will not give a direct answer to the question of whether there was an accident, but it will offer information on whether the driver lost his license and for what reason, including for participation in traffic accident.
Thus, it is possible to clarify all the information about the driver's accident-free driving or the car being in a traffic accident using special services. Depending on what data is on hand, a driver's license number or policy data, a citizen chooses the option that suits him.
Was the car in an accident - how to find out if you buy it from your hands?
In the post-Soviet space, more than half of the drivers at least once in their lives bought a used car. Therefore, there are many "folk" ways to check technical condition auto. The problem is that car services are becoming more experienced every year in matters of hiding the consequences of accidents. Therefore, when choosing a car, you should be extremely careful.
The easy way
Recently, new online services have appeared for checking cars according to the traffic police databases. This innovation is partly borrowed from European countries. However, there is a stricter system for maintaining car passports. All car services leave notes in them, so it is quite difficult to hide the fact of an accident. So, the online resource "Autocode" presents all the information about the car by its VIN code. Before you find out if the car was in an accident, ask the owner of the VIN code.
Suitable also government number. From this data you will find out all the information about the car.
If the car appeared in an accident, then it is in the traffic police database, from which it takes the information "Autocode". You can also see various court decisions, and a report of authorized services Maintenance. The information provided is quite complete, up to the reports of traffic police and traffic police officers. However, this new service still far from perfect.
Service problems
Before you find out if the car was in an accident on the Autocode website, you should consider a few points. Firstly, traffic police reports and formal records of court cases are highly inaccurate. For example, a driver hit a cyclist while braking at a traffic light. He received a small bruise and the owner of the car got off with a fine, and the car itself got a scratch on the hood. But in the report they can write an abstract phrase "damage to the hood", which can mean anything.
Also, information about the accident will be indicated on the site only if it was officially registered. It is not clear how to find out if the car was in an accident if it is not registered. In our realities, there are cases when drivers agree among themselves "on the spot" and do not apply to law enforcement agencies. Also, damage can be caused by a collision with a non-vehicle. Another point - entries in the car service. "Autocode" collects information only from authorized service stations. But many drivers do not turn to them, or even perform repairs on their own. But then how do you know if the car was involved in an accident?
Initial inspection
When buying a car, a personal inspection is very important.
The first stage is a live communication with the seller. Many motorists will say that the most important thing when choosing a car is to pay attention to its owner. The first step is to find out what repairs were carried out. If the seller says that he did nothing and presents this as proof of the reliability of the car, you need to be extremely careful. In any car, you need to change nozzles, seals, pads, and so on. Ask those. passport. If it is new, and there are no records there, then the likelihood that the car was in an accident increases. This can be verified by external inspection.
The thickness of the paint
In any accident, the body of the car is damaged. It can be leveled, but the paint will still be erased. Therefore, after performing all the repair work, the machines are painted. No matter how well it is done, the paint layer will change. A special device - a thickness gauge, determines the thickness of the enamel. If this indicator differs from the factory one, the car was painted. Ask the owner why this happened.
Was the car in an accident: how to check
The thickness of the paint is a fairly accurate indicator, but not absolutely accurate. Some workshops use state-of-the-art high-tech equipment that allows you to paint in the same way as in the factory.
In any accident, the main blow is taken by the frame and the body. At serious damage they bend and change their geometry. This is fraught with the roll of the car in a certain direction when driving and bad job mechanisms. You can inspect the body in any service station. You can independently look under the bottom and carefully examine the spars.
These are the main elements of the entire metal structure. They are made in one piece and are rigidly fixed to the frame. When they are aligned, traces always remain. Welds visible even to the naked eye.
How to find out if a car has been in an accident: a thorough check
Even if outwardly everything is in order with the car, a deep check should be carried out. none serious accident does not go unnoticed. To find out if the car was subjected to a side impact, move back sealing gum on the doors. On the racks behind them, traces of factory spot welding and uniform painting should be clearly visible. Door hinges require special attention. The bolts should have so-called "control smears".
That is, white or yellow marks set at the factory.
The bolts that fasten all the main elements of the car to the body usually also have their own painting. If at least one of them was filmed, then this will not go unnoticed. All bolts are very tight, and it is extremely difficult to remove them without damaging the splines. After the bolts comes control check- sealant. It must be applied neatly and evenly on all places that are visible from the outside. The bottom of the trunk can be carelessly smeared with sealant - to clarify such points, it is better to see in advance how the car looks in the official showroom.
Legal side of the issue
However, the danger for the buyer is not only a hidden accident. How to find out if a car is wanted? For this, the above-described "Autocode" service may be suitable. But information may simply not get there due to the lack of a statement of loss (for example, the owner left for a long time, and the car was stolen). Also in Russia, scams such as the sale of a car that is taken on a loan are common. That is, the owner sells you a car, does not pay for it on a loan, and the bank has every right to take the car.
The registration certificate is also not an absolute proof of the "cleanliness" of the car. To exclude the possibility of search and loan debts, it is necessary to go with the owner to the traffic police. Only there can give complete information.
In our time, there are quite a few scammers who make money on the sale of broken or stolen cars. Therefore, it is very important to have services that systematize and store data about machines for a long period.
In Russia on this moment there are several services for checking a car for participation in an accident and other violations: a service on the traffic police website, private checking sites, a single database of insurance companies.
Not all services are available ordinary citizens, but still, now when buying a used car, you can find out if it was involved in accidents and how much it was repaired after that.
What information is entered
There is an online traffic police accident database through which you can get some information about the car. This data is also used on the Avtokod website, where in Moscow and the region you can get information about a car registered in this region.
The database contains the following information about the car:
- general information (year and place of issue, brand, the lineup, engine parameters, etc.);
- previous owners (their number, without indicating names and surnames, only the nature of ownership - legal or natural person);
- participation in an accident (date, place and type of accident, nature of the damage received);
- prohibitions and restrictions on the car (search, being in pledge, etc.);
- date of inspection;
- use of cars for taxation (officially);
In the future, the Autocode service plans to expand to other regions of the country, as well as supplement the information entered into the database on the configuration of the machine and its service.
The traffic police database allows you to find information about a car and an accident with it throughout Russia, which is quite convenient.
True, the information is not as complete as in Autocode:
- information about participation in an accident;
- being wanted;
- prohibitions from the court, customs, social protection or investigation;
- prohibition when changing ownership;
- fines and violations.
Also, according to the traffic police database online, you can check driver license person.
Who is leading
The traffic police database is maintained by authorized employees of the organization, changes are made immediately after the incident and are displayed in the database.
If a person has a violation or has become a participant in an accident, this will be visible during the check. Therefore, many are wondering - who can remove an accident from the traffic police database, but this is not done officially.
Of course, everything depends on the nature of the violation - if an accident is classified as an administrative violation, then information about it is stored for at least 2 years, and often longer. Criminal offenses are not removed from the database.
The Autocode portal also belongs to the state portals, which is being developed by a special department based on data from the traffic police, banks and insurance companies.
Auto manufacturers give data about cars according to their VIN numbers m. The portal is still quite new, because the information in it is constantly updated.
The site has Feedback, so if the check reveals flaws, you can always write to the developers and fix the error.
The database from insurance companies is controlled and maintained by the Russian Union of Motor Insurers, which collects information about cars in various insurance companies.
The disadvantage of this accounting is the still low number of insurers in the database, therefore it is not always possible to track a person according to his previous policy.
Information about a new contract or its change is received from the database participants within 15 days, which is immediately displayed in the system.
How to check a car
When buying a car, the new owner becomes aware of his VIN-number, according to which the car is registered.
If the car is used, then its previous owner has already registered the car with the traffic police, therefore, knowing the registration certificate number and VIN number, you can find out information about the car in the Russian traffic police database online.
This will help to verify the honesty of the owner, as well as find out if the car was beaten in an accident and whether it has fines, court injunctions, etc. unpleasant things that will cause a problem with new registration and car ownership in general.
Information can be provided directly to the traffic police when contacting the department, which will take some time, but it is much more convenient and faster to do this online.
The service for checking cars has been operating on the traffic police website since February 2018 and allows you to find out all the prohibitions imposed on cars, fines and participation in an accident.
To do this, on the traffic police website, on the right, select the check section of interest in the "Online services of the traffic police" - "Checking the car":
The verification will start after entering the VIN number and the generated verification code. VIN code is indicated in the documents for the car (registration certificate or PTS). If the VIN number cannot be found, you can enter the chassis or body number.
It takes a maximum of 1 minute to search for information. If there are violations, this will immediately be displayed on the screen.
By the same principle, you can check a car for fines, but for this you need to enter its license plate. To check a driver's license, you need to know its series and number, as well as the date of registration.
Since 2018, another verification service has been operating - Autocode at avtokod.mos.ru, but only for the Moscow region. The portal is unique in the information it provides, which displays the entire history of the car since it was purchased, not just information about accidents and restrictions.
This is a connecting portal between the traffic police and insurance companies, combining a lot of information. It belongs to the state and plans to expand it to the entire territory of the country.
To check the car, you need not only the VIN number, but also a vehicle registration certificate.
If there is no VIN number, you can enter the license plate of the car. Only registered users or users of the State Services website can use the portal.
There are also many private portals on the Internet for checking cars, and they are not always free. They work on the basis of traffic police databases, but they are not as accurate as the original source. But there is no guarantee that the data provided is up-to-date and generally real.
Is it possible to find a car that fled the scene of an accident
If road accident participant fled the scene, you can only find him if you remember him state signs. This cannot be done online, as the request requires the number of the registration certificate or the VIN number of the car.
This restricts access to the database of accidents by car number to just anyone, making it possible to monitor your vehicle or check the car before buying.
But in the traffic police department, by the number of the car and the corresponding request, they can easily find the missing participant.
Database of accident insurance companies
Previously, insurance companies, when their client got into an accident, reduced the cost of his insurance, so the driver simply changed the company and received insurance in a new, full amount.
Now insurers have decided to create their own single database to check the client's history, because if a person has had frequent insured events and accidents, he receives fewer bonuses from the company and pays more for insurance.
It is even supposed to accrue bonuses to diligent drivers who did not participate in traffic accidents and accidents, and to those who often get into similar situations, there will be disbonuses on the contrary.
Go to new company, if it is a member of the base, it will not change anything, because insurers in this case only benefit from unfavorable clients.
If a person has bought OSAGO insurance, the data on him gets into the database within 15 days and is stored. All emergencies and accidents are also displayed when checked by a company employee.
In the absence of an accident with the driver, he is annually given a bonus discount on the policy, which can reach up to 50%. The driver rating can only be corrected after 2 years without precedent.
With three accidents per year, for example, the price of insurance will be increased by 2.5 times. But more than three times, insurance companies have no right to increase it.
This database can only be used by insurance companies, it is not available to ordinary people. The passport data of the driver, the number of his certificate, the policy number and the accident rate are not entered in, which makes it possible to set the price for a new policy.
Checking a car based on an accident database makes it possible to monitor your own state of affairs regarding driving, as well as avoid buying a car that has been beaten in the past, or a car that is under some kind of ban from the state.
If the car was stolen, the check will show this information as well. It is best to receive data on state portals - traffic police and Autocode, they reflect the real state of affairs and are free.
This speeds up the verification of the purchased car, and also makes it possible to avoid a long trip to the traffic police to obtain this data.
Video: Afontovo: Unified database of accidents and the cost of the OSAGO policy
Buying a new car is not cheap, so Russians still prefer to shop online. secondary market. According to the results of 2016, transactions with used cars exceeded sales of car dealers by almost 4 times (5.3 million and 1.4 million). But those who want to save money need to remember that buying a used car is fraught with many risks.
And the most common of them is the purchase vehicle after an accident, the consequences of which are carefully retouched by the seller. Only motorists with great experience, but for beginners, fortunately, there are now several available ways car accident checks.
○ Visual inspection.
Not the most reliable way examinations for accidents, as used in the repair and painting modern technologies are able to almost 100% eliminate all visual flaws. However, this step should not be neglected.
For a successful visual inspection it is important to create the right environment:
- Good lighting (daylight or bright artificial).
- clean car to prevent damage to the body from being masked by dirt.
- Sufficient quantity time, because in a hurry you can miss important details.
It is good to involve a person who understands car repair to the inspection. If this is not possible, study the car yourself, following this algorithm:
- Examine the coating for deformations. Side surfaces It is convenient to inspect while squatting. Special attention take the roof and hood.
- Examine the joints of the parts, they should be uniform in width throughout their entire length.
- If you suspect the presence of putty, attach a magnet wrapped in cloth to the doubtful area. Its fall will tell about an impressive layer of coverage.
- Check door mechanisms. If the geometry of the body part is violated, the opening and closing of the doors will be accompanied by extraneous sounds.
- Inspect the body parts, they should be uniform in color and without traces of the previous paint.
- Find the stamps on the glasses and check their production dates.
Even if no visible signs of an accident were found, the history of the car is still worth checking with the help of special services. The easiest way to do this is by its unique code.
○ Check for an accident by VIN code.
Vin code is assigned to the car by the manufacturer. This is a unique seventeen-digit number, consisting of numbers and Latin letters. Each of its symbols has a certain meaning - an indication of the country and plant, year of manufacture, type of vehicle, body number. During a personal inspection of the car, you should not rely on the words of the seller, but it is better to find the Vin-code yourself.
Usually the number is located on one of the following parts of the car:
- Under the hood.
- Under the driver's seat.
- On the door on the driver's side.
- On the windshield.
- In the trunk.
- On the front tires.
Having a Vin-code, you can find out comprehensive information about the vehicle, including its participation in an accident. For this purpose, many online services have been created. The most popular of them:
- Autocode. The service allows you to get information about all former and existing owners of a car, its real mileage, accidents and repair work, being used as a taxi, being bailed or stolen, and many others important points. The report is generated on the basis of the databases of traffic police, FSSP, credit institutions and insurance companies.
- Vin Ru. The report is generated according to the state databases. bodies of 3 states at once - Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus.
- AutoDNA. The leading service for checking vehicle histories from the US and Europe, operating since 2010.
In principle, you can use any of the services presented on the network, since they all provide reports similar in composition. It is much more important to make sure that the Vin code you have is authentic.
✔ Fake VIN code.
Vin-code falsification is carried out, most often, in order to legalize a stolen car. But unscrupulous sellers who want to hide the fact that the car was involved in an accident can also take this step. Fraudsters practice in several ways:
- Breaking characters by writing additional elements, or filling excess elements with a polymer mixture.
- Applying putty to the location of the code on the body and its further painting over.
- Applying metal to the marked area, leveling with the help of metalworking and engraving a new code in this place.
- Cutting out individual characters and their subsequent installation in a different sequence, or upside down (for example, the numbers 6 and 9).
You can check the authenticity of the code using the same online services. In addition, the Vin-code located on the elements of the car is necessarily duplicated in its technical documentation. You can identify the discrepancy by simply checking with the documents.
For a fake identification number The seller is subject to criminal liability.
Clause 1 of Article 326 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation:
- “Forgery or destruction of an identification number is punishable by a fine in the amount of up to eighty thousand rubles or in the amount of wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of up to six months, or by compulsory labor for a term of up to three hundred and sixty hours, or by corrective labor for a term of up to one year, or by restraint of liberty for a term of up to two years, or forced labor for a term of up to two years, or imprisonment for the same term.
○ Checking a car for an accident in the traffic police or through the traffic police website.
All services for checking the Vin-code draw information about what happened with car accident from the database of the State traffic inspectorate. Therefore, it would be more logical to refer to the original source. In addition, unlike third-party services, checking on the site is free. There are two ways to get information from the traffic police database:
- With the help of a visit to the department of the State traffic inspectorate.
- Using the service on the official Internet resource of the traffic police.
With the first method, everything is simple, so let's take a closer look at the online verification mechanism.
To check a car for an accident, you must perform the following steps:
- Go to the main page of the website of the State traffic inspectorate.
- In the "Services" section, select "Vehicle Check".
- In the line Vin / Body / Chassis, enter your code.
- From the check options below the row, select "Check for participation in traffic accidents."
- Click Request Review.
After entering the captcha, you will be provided with a report on the participation of the car in an accident. But it must be taken into account that given base was formed only in 2015, and does not contain information about previous accidents. In addition, only those accidents that were recorded by a police officer and put on federal records can be calculated.
○ Checking for an accident through an insurance organization.
Insurance organizations have a common database where all data on insured events that have occurred in relation to cars are entered. Having on hand the data on the insurance policy of the purchased car, you can apply for information about the accident to your insurer. You can ask the seller for a copy of the insurance policy, or find out the data on it using the service of the Russian Union of Motor Insurers. To do this, you need the VIN code of the vehicle, its register sign, as well as body and chassis numbers.
○ Checking for an accident through the website of the State Service.
The website of the State Service accumulates information from the databases of all government departments of the Russian Federation. Here you can find information about the participation of the car in an accident, as well as its registration, owners, and all kinds of restrictions. But has a service significant disadvantage – complicated procedure registration, which involves an authorization procedure through a personal visit to any of the state. authorities, or received by mail code. If you have not previously registered on the portal, then it will be easier to break through the car with any of the other services.
You can get the necessary information on the website of the State Service in the "Transport and Driving" section, you will need a Vin-code and registration plate number for this.
○ Inspection at a service station.
When buying a new car, it is issued service card, in which all marks on technical inspections and repair work will be entered. Such a card can be requested from the seller in order to get acquainted with the maintenance history of the machine. It will not be superfluous to visit a service station to carry out vehicle diagnostics.
However, visiting a service center official dealer has a number of disadvantages:
- There is a high probability of establishing friendly relations between the owner of the car and the employees of the service, who, in his interests, may “not notice” significant shortcomings.
- Computer diagnostics, which is practiced in such services, may not be enough to make an objective assessment.
- You will not be able to find out the adequate amount needed for repairs, since the prices of official service centers higher than in conventional service stations.
For these reasons, it is better to take the car to an independent service center for an examination of an accident and an assessment of the technical condition.
