TheVIN Check
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The Ultimate Used Car Inspection Checklist

A 40-point list of what to look at, what to drive for, and what to verify with a VIN check before you hand over money. Built from the same recall and complaint data we use inside our paid reports.

  • Exterior + frame red flags an untrained eye misses
  • Interior + electronic checks that surface salvage history
  • The 7-minute test drive that catches transmission + alignment trouble
  • Which 3 things to verify against the VIN before signing

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Why we built this

The checklist isn’t a sales tool — it’s the thing we wish every buyer ran before they paid. About 60% of the value of the checklist is purely physical inspection and test-drive technique. The other 40% is verification against the public NHTSA recall and ODI complaint databases — which is what we automate with a VIN history report. The checklist tells you when a report would actually help; if you don’t need one, you don’t.