Exclusive to MotorCheck
MotorCheck reports now include a Previous Ad Check with every report. This feature appears under Minor Issues as 'Previous Advertisements', offering additional valuable insights into a vehicle's sales history.
The latest statistics show that 60% of all MotorCheck reports generated return at least 1 Previous Ad.
This unique feature aggregates over a billion used car listings from the UK market spanning the past decade — and crucially, it includes adverts that are live in the market right now, as well as historical listings.
For each advert, the data includes the date of the listing, the number of days the vehicle was offered for sale, the asking price, the odometer reading at the time, seller information (the dealership or trader who advertised it), and additional listing details such as imagery, descriptions and trim.
Dealer & Stock-Buying Use Cases
Spec Verification — Confirm essential sales details such as alloy styles, interior features, trim colours, and factory-fit options that may not appear elsewhere.
Mileage History — Strengthen the vehicle's mileage history by incorporating odometer readings captured at the point of each previous advertisement, helping spot inconsistencies the standard mileage record may miss.
Sales & Service History — Identifies the previous seller history, which adds context around what level of prep, servicing, and presentation the vehicle has previously been through.
Previous Value & Desirability — Offers an understanding of what the vehicle has historically been advertised at, and how long it sat on the market — useful for valuation and demand assessment.
Finance Broker & Lender Use Cases — Verifying the Sale
For finance brokers and lenders, the Previous & Current Ads Check answers a question that no standard provenance check can:
Is this vehicle actually being sold by the dealer who's proposing the finance?
A standard provenance check tells you the car is real, the VIN matches, and there's no outstanding finance against it. It does not tell you whether the dealer on the proposal is genuinely the one selling the car. That's the gap that has allowed organised "ghost car" finance fraud to operate at scale across the UK — fraudsters routing finance proposals for real vehicles through dealers who have never owned, possessed or sold them.
The Previous & Current Ads dataset closes that gap by surfacing:
Who is currently advertising the vehicle, and from what location. If the dealer submitting the finance proposal is genuinely selling the car, you'd expect to see it advertised by them, at their location, at a price consistent with the deal.
Who has advertised it recently. If the vehicle was last on sale months ago by a completely different seller — or has since vanished from the market — that's a question that needs answering before funds are released.
Pricing and seller-identity patterns over time that may indicate a fronted deal, where the proposing dealer is not the genuine seller.
Imagery and description consistency, useful when assessing whether the vehicle being financed is the vehicle that's actually been on the market.
This intelligence sits naturally alongside biometric checks on the consumer and standard provenance checks on the vehicle. Together, they form a layered defence against finance fraud — one that catches proposals at underwriting, before money moves.
Speak to Our Team
If you're a finance broker or lender and would like a walk-through of how the Previous & Current Ads Check supports your underwriting and payout processes, please contact Natalie Young, our National Account Director, at natalie@motorcheck.co.uk.
Related Articles