Data sources

• MOT history: sourced from official DVSA data (test results, recorded mileages, advisories), looked up by registration plate and cached for up to seven days. DVSA data verifies the MOT record only, nothing else about the advert.
• Road tax (VED) rates: from published gov.uk tables, used in running-cost estimates.
• Electricity price: the Ofgem price cap domestic rate, used for EV home-charging estimates.
• Pump prices: national average petrol and diesel prices, reviewed periodically (each figure in the codebase carries a verified-on date enforced by tests).

Everything extracted from an advert you save: price, mileage, claimed service history, VAT status, description, photos. This is the seller's account of the vehicle. We structure it and cross-check what we can (for example the advert's mileage against the DVSA mileage trail), but we cannot verify it. The completeness score tells you how much of it is present; it cannot tell you whether it is true.

Annual mileage, home postcode area, finance assumptions, use-case preferences and notes. Used to personalise running-cost estimates, cost-of-ownership figures and distance calculations. Never shared with sellers.

We count views of public pages ourselves rather than embedding Google Analytics or any other third-party tracker. No cookies are set, no IP address is stored, and views of anything personal to you (a saved listing, your garage, your account) are never recorded. It tells us which guides are worth writing more of, and nothing about you as an individual. The full detail is in the privacy policy.

The completeness score, value score, and running-cost / total-cost-of-ownership figures are deterministic calculations from the sources above, using the fixed rules described on the methodology page. They are estimates for comparison, not quotes or valuations. Insurance is never estimated; we show the insurance group where known.

Shortlist answers and deep analysis are generated from your saved listings and their MOT history. Model reputation profiles additionally use web search and display citations to their sources. AI output is grounded in this data but remains generated text: a research aid, not a verdict.

CompareForecourt has no access to the restricted databases behind commercial vehicle-history checks. We do not check:

• outstanding finance on the vehicle;
• police stolen-vehicle records;
• the insurance industry's write-off register (we only surface a damage category when the advert itself declares one);
• import/export status beyond what the advert states;
• the seller's identity or right to sell.

Before buying, run a paid history check with an established provider (these query the finance, theft and write-off registers) and consider an independent mechanical inspection. Neither is a service we currently offer, and no feature of CompareForecourt is a substitute for them.

Spotted something that does not match? Tell us via the feedback page.