Mileage Check · Free

Free Mileage Check, Spot Clocked Cars Before You Buy

A dashboard can be rewound; the official record can't. Hold the odometer up against every reading DVSA testers have logged for the car, free and in seconds.

Every DVSA test-day reading on one timeline
Any drop between readings flagged automatically
The latest official figure to hold against the dashboard
Quiet years and gaps shown, not smoothed over
Read live from DVSA MOT records as you search

Data provided byDVSA MOT history

Readings come straight from the DVSA MOT history API at the moment you search. A car under three years old hasn't been tested yet, so it has no readings to show. See our terms for full details.

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What you get with your free mileage check

Each MOT leaves a mileage reading behind, and together those readings tell a story the seller can't edit. The check lines them up and points at anything that doesn't fit.

Data point	What you'll see
Full mileage timeline	Every reading the DVSA holds for the car, arranged oldest to newest in one view.
Mileage at each MOT	The figure the tester keyed in on the day, exactly as it entered the official record.
Mileage-drop flag	A warning raised automatically wherever a reading sits below the one before it.
Mileage chart	The readings drawn as a line: a genuine car climbs steadily, and anything odd shows as a kink.
Gaps in the record	Stretches with no readings stand out plainly; storage, SORN or a skipped test are the usual causes.
First MOT due date	On a car too young to have been tested, the date its mileage record will begin.
Vehicle identity	The DVLA make, model, fuel type and first-registration date, for judging the readings against the car's age.
Dated readings	The test date beside every figure, so you can tell how old the most recent reading is.
Coverage	Readings reach back to 2005 in Great Britain and 2017 in Northern Ireland; cars yet to sit their first MOT have none.
Latest recorded mileage	The newest official reading: take it to the viewing, where the odometer should sit above it.

The timeline catches most tampering on its own; the wear on the car confirms it. Read both before any money changes hands.

How It Works

Three steps sit between a number plate and the car's whole mileage story, told by DVSA records rather than the seller's memory.

1. Enter Your Reg

Give us the plate of the car in question. We ask for nothing else, and no account is involved.

2. We Query DVSA

We fetch the odometer figure logged at every MOT the vehicle has ever sat.

3. Get Your Instant Results

The timeline appears on the page straight away, with any reading that falls below its predecessor already flagged.

What the free mileage check shows

Odometer fraud works only while nobody keeps notes, and the DVSA has been keeping them since 2005. At every MOT the tester writes down the reading, and none of those entries can be edited from the driver's seat. This check gathers them into one timeline for any UK registration, so the dashboard's claim faces years of independent evidence.

Reading the result takes no training. Mileage should only ever climb, at a pace that fits the car's life: quicker in its commuting years, slower once it becomes the second car. What it can never honestly do is shrink. A figure lower than the one before it, or a car that suddenly covers almost nothing in the months before sale, usually means someone has been inside the instrument cluster.

Every drop between consecutive readings is flagged for you, and the chart lays bare the flat spells and surges that a list of numbers hides. Judge the annual pace against the UK benchmarks below, and for mileage in context with tax, MOT and identity, run our free car check.

UK average mileage benchmarks

Whether a figure is plausible depends on what ordinary cars actually cover. Department for Transport and industry-wide datasets put usable numbers on that, split by fuel type and by the age of the vehicle.

Vehicle group	UK average annual mileage
All cars (overall)	~7,100 miles
Petrol cars	~6,200 miles
Diesel cars	~8,300 miles
New cars (under 1 year)	~12,500 miles
Older cars (13+ years)	~4,200 miles

Treat the table as context rather than law. A motorway-commuting diesel can add 20,000 miles a year and be all the better for the warm running, while a garaged second car might not manage 3,000 doing the school run. Averages don't condemn a car; a broken pattern does, and the classic break is a final year of almost nothing after a lifetime of normal use, timed neatly with the car coming up for sale.

The trade reads it the same way. An older car with a genuinely tiny total does exist, but it's rare and tends to arrive with the paperwork to prove itself. Low annual mileage that appears only in the record's final chapter is adjustment, not restraint.

How to spot a clocked car: the red-flag checklist

The tools of the trade are depressingly ordinary. Mileage-correction devices are sold openly for legitimate cluster repairs, a donor instrument panel from a breaker costs little, and on many cars the stored value can simply be rewritten through the diagnostic port. None of it leaves a mark you'd spot from the driver's seat, which is why the record and the physical car have to be read together.

Signs in the data:

A reading lower than the test before it: the closest thing clocking has to a signature.
Annual use that collapses in the last year of the record, just as the car reaches the market.
Years where the figure barely moves on a car that was never SORN or declared off the road.
Figures that keep landing on convenient round numbers, the mark of a value typed in rather than driven.

Signs on the car:

A steering wheel, gear knob or set of pedals worn smooth on a car claiming modest miles.
A driver's seat gone soft and shapeless while the odometer insists the car is barely used.
Service stamps or old invoices quoting more miles than the dashboard shows today.
Dead pixels, missing segments or odd start-up behaviour on a digital display.
Fresh paint or replacement panels on a car sold as low-mileage and untouched.

One sign is a question to put to the seller. Two or more, straddling the data and the metal, are your cue to leave. A wasted viewing costs an afternoon; a clocked car costs its inflated price up front and its hidden wear for as long as you keep it.

The legal position: clocking, fraud, and what to do if scammed

UK law draws its line at deception, not at the screwdriver. Changing what an odometer displays is lawful in itself, because clusters genuinely fail and get replaced. What the law forbids is passing the car on without declaring that the reading no longer tells the truth: that engages the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and, where the deceit is deliberate, the Fraud Act 2006.

The scale justifies the caution. Industry estimates put roughly one UK car in eighteen at odds with its own mileage history, adjusted downwards by around 46,000 miles on average. And those cars aren't hiding among the cheap listings: a clocked car is usually dressed up as the best example on the page, because that is where the profit lives.

Already bought one? Build the file before doing anything else: the advert, every message with the seller, the MOT history, any service records and a dated photograph of the odometer as it reads now. Take it to Trading Standards through the Citizens Advice consumer service on 0808 223 1133, or to the police as fraud where an organised reseller or serious money is involved. Refunds and prosecutions both begin with that evidence.

Why MOT mileage has gaps

The record is truthful but not continuous. Computerised results begin in 2005 for Great Britain and 2017 for Northern Ireland, and nothing exists at all until a car's first test, due on its third anniversary in GB and its fourth in NI. In between, a year on SORN, a spell on a lease fleet or a sale timed between tests can leave the trail thin exactly where you'd want it dense.

The National Mileage Register (NMR), maintained by Cap HPI, thickens the picture. It gathers readings from franchised dealers, independent workshops, leasing companies, finance providers and trade auctions, often catching figures between MOTs and on cars too new for the DVSA database. It's commercial trade data, so no free check can include it. Where a timeline looks sparse and the purchase is significant, a paid HPI-style report that bundles NMR readings is the sensible next step.

Mileage as a value, condition and insurance signal

Almost every pound in a used-car deal keys off the odometer. It moves the asking price, decides which wear items fall due next, feeds insurance and warranty pricing, and fixes where the car sits on its service schedule. Five free minutes verifying the figure protects every other number in the transaction.

Nor is the aim simply a small number. A motorway car with a thick service file often makes a better buy than a low-mileage runabout that has spent its life on cold, two-mile trips. What you're really buying is consistency: a figure that agrees with the wear on the car, the paperwork in the folder and the story you're being told.

Pair the mileage check with the MOT history check to set advisories beside the mileage trend, and run the car tax calculator to settle the standing costs before you commit.

Pair the report with a physical inspection

Bring the timeline to the viewing and treat it as a script. The last DVSA reading sets a floor: today's odometer should sit a believable distance above it for the months that have passed. Then let your hands check the story, because pedals, wheel rim and seat fabric wear at the rate a car is used, and no diagnostic lead can polish them back.

Ask for the service book and invoices as well. Every stamp and job sheet records a mileage of its own, and honest figures thread through all of them in order. A seller who can't produce paperwork for a low-mileage claim is asking you to take the dashboard's word for the one thing a dashboard can be made to say.

Mileage check FAQ

How can I check a car's mileage history for free?

Run the check at the top of this page with the car's registration. Every reading the DVSA holds comes back in date order with any drop already flagged, and nothing is paid for or signed up to.

What is a mileage discrepancy and why does it matter?

It's any point where the recorded figures disagree with each other, most often a reading lower than the test before it. Honest mileage only ever rises, so a discrepancy is the strongest documentary hint that the odometer has been interfered with, and that touches value, safety, insurance and the legality of the sale.

What is car clocking and is it illegal in the UK?

Clocking means winding an odometer back to inflate a car's value. The adjustment itself isn't a crime, since clusters are sometimes legitimately repaired or replaced, but selling the car without declaring the true distance is an offence under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and, in deliberate cases, the Fraud Act 2006.

How do I spot a clocked car from the MOT history?

Four patterns do most of the work: a reading that falls between tests, annual mileage that collapses just before sale, long flat stretches on a car that stayed on the road, and figures that keep landing on round numbers. Where the data raises a doubt, the cabin usually settles it: worn controls and a tired seat have no place on a genuinely low-mileage car.

What counts as high mileage for a used car in the UK?

There's no official line. Past 100,000 miles a car is commonly called high-mileage, yet a motorway diesel with a full service history can go far beyond that in fine health, while a neglected town car wears out much sooner. The annual rate set against the UK averages, and the condition it left behind, tell you more than the total ever will.

What is the average annual mileage in the UK?

Around 7,100 miles a year across all cars, with petrol averaging about 6,200 and diesel about 8,300. Cars in their first year cover roughly 12,500 miles, and cars past thirteen years old settle to about 4,200.

Why might mileage drop between two MOT tests legitimately?

Rarely, and nearly always for one of two reasons: an instrument cluster replaced after a fault or accident, which must be declared when the car is sold, or a tester's typing slip, which the test station can correct. Anything without one of those explanations deserves a much harder look.

What's the difference between the MOT mileage record and the National Mileage Register?

DVSA data amounts to one reading per MOT, taken at most once a year. The National Mileage Register (NMR), run by Cap HPI, adds readings gathered from dealers, workshops, leasing companies and trade auctions, so it's denser and can expose an adjustment made between tests. It's commercial trade data, found in paid checks rather than free ones.

I've bought a car with a clocked odometer, what should I do?

Keep everything: the advert, your messages with the seller, the MOT history, any service paperwork and a dated photograph of the odometer. Report it to Trading Standards through the Citizens Advice consumer service on 0808 223 1133, or to the police as fraud where the seller looks organised or the sums are serious. Early evidence is what makes refunds and prosecutions possible.

How far back does DVSA mileage data go?

To 2005 for cars, vans and motorcycles in Great Britain and to 2017 in Northern Ireland, with HGVs and buses joining from 2018 (GB) and 2017 (NI). Tests taken before those dates never made it into the digital record, so nothing can surface them.

Can I trust the mileage on a car under three years old?

Not through MOT data: the first test isn't due until three years from registration in Great Britain, four in Northern Ireland, so no DVSA readings exist yet. Ask for the servicing record instead. Each visit logs a mileage of its own, which covers the gap until the first MOT.

Does a high-mileage car always mean a bad buy?

No. Distance covered gently on motorways, with services on time, wears a car far less than the odometer suggests, while a small reading earned through short cold trips can hide a harder life. What should never vary is consistency: mileage trend, service file and MOT advisory pattern all telling the same story.

Where does the mileage data come from?

Live from the DVSA MOT history API each time you search. Nothing is estimated or bought in from data brokers: if a reading appears in the result, a test station once typed it in.

Do you store my registration number?

Searches are anonymous: no name, email or account exists to attach one to. We do retain which registrations were checked, along with their results, to serve cached reports quickly, keep bots out and keep the check free. None of it is ever sold.

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