Why Getting a History Report of a Car You’re Thinking of Buying Is Smart

An Important Factor to Consider Is the Car’s History

Shopping for any car can be a bit nerve-wracking. There are plenty of people out there who don’t have much knowledge about cars other than how to drive one. This often makes purchasing a car a stressful situation. 

Worse, if you buy a used car, you have to wonder how it was treated in the past, and if it was taken care of while that previous owner had it. Knowing the history of a particular car before you buy it, can be one of the smartest decisions you’ll make in the car-buying process. 

The last thing you want to do is end up with a car that has been neglected or abused. You want a car that’s in good working order and been maintained properly per the manufacturer’s specifications. 

You also want a car that has experienced no accidents, because once a car is in an accident—even a small one—it can be compromised in terms of safety and performance. 

How do you find out some of this information? Well, one thing you can do is get a vehicle history report. 

What Is a History Report? 

In a nutshell, a vehicle history report is a detailed report you can order from a vehicle history reporting company, such as REVs Check Report, that will tell you the details of the particular vehicle’s history over the course of its life since new. 

Most things that happen to a car, especially the bad things, get reported to insurance companies and other organizations that keep detailed records on cars based on their vehicle identification numbers. This enables you to order a report of all of this information before you choose to purchase a used car. 

While a vehicle can’t show you everything that a vehicle has gone through, it can give you a high-level look at the vehicle and alert you to some red flags that might help you in your decision to buy or not. 

Why Should You Care About a Vehicle History Report?

You might think, “Cars get in accidents all the time. Why should I care about this?” Well, there are a lot of reasons. First up, you’ll likely test drive the car you’re thinking of buying, if you notice a slight vibration or some other irregularity, you could overlook it. However, with a vehicle history report to back you up, you’ll be more likely to take these minor issues seriously. 

And that’s a good thing, too, because if you choose to overlook them, small issues at the time of purchase can turn into very big and costly issues down the road. 

Additionally, vehicle history reports can shed light on the damage that you might not be able to see or feel. A good vehicle history report will include things like storm or flood damage that can sometimes be easily covered up by nefarious car dealers. Consumer Reports warns of this very thing quite often. 

There are plenty of car dealers out there who will take advantage of buyers and purposely sell them a vehicle they know has issues. A vehicle history report will help you make the right choice and walk away from these situations. 

Should You Buy a Car Without One?

Vehicle history reports do come with a cost, but they’re often only a small fee, and considering they could be one of the deciding factors for you and the fact that a good vehicle history report could save you thousands of dollars, it’s always worth it to get pay for the vehicle history report. 

Often, dealerships will pay for the history report themselves. This is fine. Just make sure the history report was done by an independent party and not some in-house team or a company affiliated with the dealership. 

It’s worth noting that the dealer will simply build the cost of this report into the cost of the car, so you still end up paying for it in the long run, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. 

If you find a car that doesn’t have a vehicle history report, ask the dealer to order one. If you come across a seller or dealership that refuses to get a vehicle history report, then tell them you’ll just move on to a different dealership. 

In just about every case, a car dealer will be happy to pay for the vehicle history report if it means getting a sale on the car, so don’t buy a car without one.