They check it before they message you.
The MOT history is free to look up and takes twenty seconds. So is the tax status, the engine size, the fuel type, the colour it was registered as. A used car advert is one of the only things you write that a stranger can audit before making contact.
Almost nothing in a car advert is unfalsifiable.
That sounds like a constraint. It is actually the seller's biggest advantage, and almost nobody uses it.
Think about what a buyer does with a shortlist of four Golfs. They put each registration into the MOT history service. Within a minute they know the recorded mileages at every test, whether the readings run in a straight line, what came up as an advisory last year, and whether anything failed. They have not spoken to you and they have already formed a view — and if your advert said "low mileage, long MOT, no advisories" and the record says otherwise, they have formed it about you rather than about the car.
The advert that survives that is the one that got there first. Advisories volunteered cost nothing and read as somebody with nothing to hide. Advisories omitted are the thing that gets found. The same logic runs through the whole document: a keeper count that matches the V5C, a service history described by stamp count rather than by adjective, a condition paragraph that names the kerbed alloy before the buyer sees it in photo four.
Which is why this job removes claims rather than adding them. Everything a buyer can act on — mileage, service history, MOT status, keeper count, write-off category, outstanding finance — is something it will not write unless you supplied it, and each one comes back naming the document that would let you say it properly. It will not assert a car is clear of finance or has never been written off, and it will not imply the opposite either. It has run no check. It has read an advert.
A real advert, before and after.
From the Auto Trader rubric behind the job.
2018 VW Golf 1.5 TSI Match — £9,995 ono
Beautiful car in immaculate condition throughout, drives faultlessly. Full service history, low mileage, one owner, long MOT. Any inspection welcome. Absolute bargain, first to see will buy. Cash on collection only, no timewasters.
2018 (68) Volkswagen Golf 1.5 TSI EVO Match 5dr, manual, petrol — £9,995
Recorded mileage [MUST SUPPLY: current odometer reading]. Registered [MUST SUPPLY: month/year of first registration from the V5C].
Service history. [MUST SUPPLY: how many stamps are in the book, the date and mileage of each, and whether they are main dealer or independent. Only describe it as "full service history" if the book is complete at VW's intervals — a buyer can act on that phrase.]
MOT. [MUST SUPPLY: expiry date, and any advisories from the last test. You can check both free at gov.uk/check-mot-history — buyers will, so it is better coming from you.]
Condition. Bodywork is [ADD FACT: describe each mark and where it is — bumper scuffs, alloy kerbing, stone chips]. Mechanically [ADD FACT: anything that needs attention — air-con, tyres, brakes, a warning light].
Located in [ADD FACT: town]. Happy for you to inspect it yourself or bring an independent inspection — an AA or RAC check is welcome. Payment by bank transfer or in person at a bank; the V5C will be signed over on the day.
The last two lines are doing more work than every adjective that was removed. "Bring an independent inspection" and "payment at a bank" are what a cautious buyer is looking for and are almost never offered, because sellers assume the buyer wants enthusiasm. The buyer wants reassurance that this will not be a wasted Saturday.
"Cash on collection only, no timewasters" went for the same reason. It reads as a seller braced for a fight, and a car sale where the money moves in a bank branch is safer for you as well.
One fork decides half the report.
Are you selling privately, or in the course of a business? The obligations are not the same, and the difference is larger than anything else in the advert — "sold as seen" does nothing for a trader, and a private seller does not owe what a trader owes on quality and fitness for purpose.
Plenty of adverts are genuinely ambiguous about it: someone selling their fourth car this year, or a sole trader using a personal account. Where the advert does not settle it, the report asks rather than assuming. It will not add warranty, finance or part-exchange wording on a guess, and it will not label you a private seller either.
What happens.
- Paste the advert. Headline, description, and the spec, mileage, MOT and history lines exactly as you have written them. Do not tidy it first — the phrases you would tidy are the ones worth looking at.
- Top up once. store credit, never more than 40p on this job, and only what the report costs is spent. A change is another go at the job and costs pence too, and you will want one: the first pass hands you a list of things to go and read off the V5C and the service book.
- Back comes a scored report. The score is capped hard by any unsupported claim. Then the claims ranked by how much trouble each could cause, a rewritten advert with a real condition paragraph, the photo set to shoot, and the documents to find.
A generation that fails spends nothing.
Honest fit.
Worth it if
- Your advert has been up a fortnight and the only messages are lowball offers.
- You have written "full service history" and are not certain the book is complete.
- There is a scuff or a warning light you have not decided how to mention.
- You are a small trader and want to know what your advert has to say that a private one does not.
- You are selling privately for the first time and the safety side worries you.
Not worth it if
- You want the car made to sound better than it is. This one works in the other direction, deliberately.
- You want the mileage or the MOT date filled in. It will not guess either, from the year, the price or a dashboard photo.
- You want a finance or write-off check. It has run none and will not report one either way.
- You want a price. It reads adverts, it does not value cars.
What sellers ask before writing the mileage down.
Can I write full service history?
Only if it is true and you can show it, and this is the phrase written by reflex more than any other in a car advert. It will not write it unless you used those exact words and supplied the stamp count or the dates; otherwise it comes back as a required gap naming the document that proves it. Partial history is not a weaker version of full history, it is a different fact, and it is worth stating as what it actually is: five stamps, the last at 78,000, then nothing.
One owner or one keeper. Is there a difference?
Yes, and a real one. The V5C records registered keepers rather than owners, so a car with one keeper may have had several owners, and a lease or a company car makes the two diverge as a matter of routine. It will not convert one into the other or round the number down. Keeper count is one of five facts treated as untouchable here — mileage, service history, MOT, keeper count and damage — none of which it will assert, infer or upgrade out of an adjective.
Do I have to say it was a Category N write-off?
Yes. Concealed write-off history is named by Trading Standards guidance as a misleading omission, and under section 230 of the DMCC Act 2024 material facts belong in the advert. Categories S and N replaced C and D in October 2017 — S is repaired structural damage, N non-structural — and a buyer's check surfaces it whatever the advert says, so the only question is whether they hear it from you or from a report five minutes before the viewing. It will not state that a car is not a write-off either, because that is a check result rather than an adjective.
Am I a trader or a private seller? I sell three or four a year.
It will not decide that for you and it deliberately does not assume, because the consequences differ sharply and a wrong assumption produces confident nonsense. Falsely presenting yourself as a private seller while trading is a banned practice under Schedule 20 of the DMCC Act 2024. If you are a trader, the advert has to disclose it, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 applies to the sale, and section 31 makes sold as seen ineffective against a consumer's statutory rights. Where your input is ambiguous it puts the question back to you.
Can I put sold as seen?
A private seller and a trader are in very different positions on this phrase. Between private individuals it carries some meaning. From a trader it is void against a consumer's statutory rights under section 31 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, and using it is on the failure list. What it does not do in either case is the thing people hope for, which is to cure a fault you knew about and did not mention. Describing the fault does that. The phrase does not.
How do I check the mileage is right?
The DVLA MOT history service is free and records the mileage at every test, which gives you the shape of the car's life rather than a single number — and it is where a discrepancy shows up as a line running the wrong way. Take the figure from the record rather than from memory or from a photograph of the dashboard. It will not round a mileage, infer one, or state one you have not supplied.
Should I mention that it was an ex-hire car?
Yes. Ex-fleet, ex-hire, ex-taxi and ex-driving-school are all named by Trading Standards among the things whose omission misleads, and all of them are discoverable. Stated plainly beside the mileage and the service record they explain the price rather than damaging it, which is the reverse of what sellers fear. It will not delete a disclosed fault or history to make an advert read better, and it will not invent one either — there is no false balance in it.
There is finance still outstanding on it. Can I sell it?
Not without dealing with the finance, and not without saying so: outstanding finance is on the failure list as an omission, and the debt follows the car rather than the seller. It will not state that a car is finance-free or clear on a history check on your say-so, because both are results of a check rather than descriptions of a car. Settle it or state it. A buyer discovers this on the day, and a sale unwinding at that point is far worse than an advert that mentioned it.
Have the advert read.
Paste it as it stands. Have the V5C and the service book to hand for the second pass.
Top up once. No subscription. About 28p — never more than 40p.