Is the data live or cached?

DVLA and DVSA lookups are made when you run the check. Results are briefly cached so that repeating the same registration does not re-query the upstream APIs, but nothing is served from an old snapshot of a record.

Why is some of the Pro report sometimes missing?

Advert history covers roughly half of UK registrations, so a car that has never been listed returns nothing — and we render nothing rather than an empty panel implying a clean result. Everything else is present on every Pro check.

Who writes the analysis?

A language model, working only from the figures in your report. It is labelled as AI throughout and it never introduces a fact that is not already in the data above it.

Every Check We Run, and Where the Data Comes From

Provenance

Every check we run

What is in a CarLlama report, field by field, and which source each part comes from.

Most check services list what their report contains. This page lists where each part of it came from, because a report you cannot trace is a report you have to take on faith.

DVLA Vehicle Enquiry Service

Free check

The registration record, read live at the moment you run a check.

Tax status and the date the current period ends
MOT status and expiry date
Make and registered colour
Fuel type, engine capacity and CO₂ emissions
Euro status and wheelplan
Year and month of first registration
Date the most recent V5C was issued
Export marker

DVSA MOT History Trade API

Free check

Every MOT test on the DVSA's digital record.

Test date, result and certificate expiry
Defects graded dangerous, major and minor
Advisory notices in the tester's own words
Faults rectified during the test (PRS)
Odometer reading recorded at each test
Test numbers, including retests

Vehicle provenance feed

Pro check

The commercial registers that are not public — the reason a Pro check costs money.

Outstanding finance agreements: lender, type, start date and term
Write-off category, loss date, loss type and insurer
Certificate of Destruction and scrap markers
Stolen markers, with the reporting police force
High-risk records
Previous keeper count and the date of the last keeper change
Plate change history and every previous registration
Colour change history with dates
Recorded mileage entries and the provider's anomaly flag
Import and export markers, with dates
Full technical specification and identity fields

Valuation feed

Pro check

What the car is worth across the markets it could sell in.

Trade, private, forecourt and auction values
Valuation struck against the car's actual mileage
The mileage the valuation assumed, so the two can be compared

UK advert history

Pro check

Where the car has been listed for sale before. Coverage is partial — roughly half of registrations return nothing, and we show nothing rather than an empty panel that would read as a clean result.

Previous listings with asking price and date
Mileage stated in each advert
How long each listing ran
Whether the car is currently advertised

Worked out by CarLlama

Pro check

Not bought from anyone. These are facts the report derives by crossing data that arrives from different suppliers and would otherwise sit on facing pages without ever meeting.

Miles covered by each keeper, from keeper dates crossed with MOT readings
The rate the car is being driven now, against its lifetime average
Projected mileage today, and how far that sits above the valuation's assumption
A fail and its retest collapsed into one visit to the garage
Defects that escalated from advisory to failure between tests
When a finance agreement is due to end, in years and months from today
An advert's stated mileage placed between the MOT readings either side of it
A plain-English analysis, written against these numbers and placed beside the card it discusses

What none of it can tell you

Every register above records something that was reported to it. Damage repaired without an insurance claim, a loan secured informally against a car, a theft nobody logged, a fault that was never presented for test — none of these leave an entry anywhere, and no check sold by anyone can find them.

A clean report is strong evidence and it is not a guarantee. It belongs alongside an inspection and a test drive, which is why every Pro report ends on what to check in person rather than on a verdict.

Run a free check See a sample Pro Check