After shopping around at several used car lots you have finally found a car that interests you. The dealer appears to be helpful and honest, but still, you have questions about the car that he cannot answer. One of those questions should be, "Has this car ever been in an accident that resulted in serious damage?" In the pre-Internet days, this question might have been nearly impossible to answer, but these days answers can be found rather easily.

How to find the VIN

The vehicle identification number, or VIN, is the first bit of information you will need to find out if the car has ever been involved in an accident. The VIN is located on the data tag on the driver's door jamb and also on the left side of the dashboard, just under the bottom edge of the windshield.

Services to use

The most well-known business that provides this type of information is Carfax. This pay service is considered very reliable and provides information on accidents, previous owners, mileage and where the car has been registered. A report can be initiated, ordered and paid for directly on the Carfax website. To do so, one enters the VIN and his credit card information and receives a report online. There are other, less well known companies performing this service as well. Some of these are autocheck.com; checkmycar.com and govdmvregistry.com. These companies also charge a fee for their services. If the car being considered is a brand that has a dealer near you, the dealer may be willing to check the VIN number for you for free. Information gleaned from a dealership may be less complete than a Carfax report, however. This is because the dealer would only have, or be able to obtain, information based on the car's appearance at a dealership for service and repairs.

Source:

samarins.com: How to check used car history records by the VIN number