Don't overpay for a used car with a hidden history.
We check odometer, accidents, salvage & flood rebuilds, theft and recalls across 1200+ databases. CA$12.90 — full report in 60 seconds.
900M+ Vehicles in database
CA$12.90 Full report
Carlytics is a free VIN decoder and vehicle history platform that cross-references 900+ million vehicle records across 47+ countries. For Canadian buyers it is the affordable alternative to a full history report — checking odometer, salvage and flood branding, accidents and theft. Full reports from CA$12.90 — one-time payment, no subscription.
What we check for when preparing a report
Carlytics is the largest online database of used vehicle records. It contains more than a billion data points from all over the world.
Damage
We check if the car has been in any accidents or had serious repairs. Damage can lower the car's value and cause safety problems. Our report helps you avoid cars with hidden damage that sellers might not tell you about.
Mileage rollbacks
We look for signs that the mileage might have been changed. Some sellers lower the mileage to make the car look newer. We check mileage records from different databases to make sure the numbers are honest.
Specs & equipment
We list the car's original features and equipment. This helps you see if anything is missing or changed. You'll know exactly what the car should have when it left the factory.
Safety
Manufacturers typically issue safety recalls to fix harmful defects. Make sure your car doesn't have any before taking it on the road and also learn its general safety rating.
Natural disaster
Check if the vehicle has been damaged in floods, hurricanes, or other natural disasters.
Stolen car database
We check police and insurance records to see if the car has been reported stolen. Buying a stolen car can lead to big legal and financial problems. Our report gives you peace of mind.
Photos
If available, we include old photos or auction pictures of the car. <br />These photos can show past damage, repairs, or changes that you might not notice in person.
Market value
We compare prices from many sources to show the car's fair market value.<br />This helps you know if the price is good or too high, so you can make a smart deal.
Trusted in 47+ countries worldwide
Carlytics aggregates vehicle data from 47+ European countries, pulling from national registries like Finnish Traficom (5M vehicles), Dutch RDW, Czech ISTP, and Danish DMR. Combined with NHTSA, EU Safety Gate recalls, and 348,000+ real listings, the database covers 900M+ vehicles.
Access data from national registries,
insurance databases, law enforcement and more.
How It Works
Carlytics checks any VIN in under 10 seconds by cross-referencing 900M+ records from 47+ European countries. Enter a 17-character VIN, and the system searches NHTSA, EU Safety Gate, national registries, and 348,000+ real listings to build a complete vehicle history report for CA$12.90.
Get comprehensive vehicle information in just a few simple steps. Our process is designed to be quick, easy, and informative.
Enter Vehicle Details
Enter your license plate or VIN number to start the check process.
Instant Processing
Our system quickly searches through billions of records to find your vehicle.
Comprehensive Report
Receive a detailed report with complete vehicle history and important alerts.
Make Informed Decisions
Use the insights to make confident decisions about your vehicle purchase or sale.
Why Run a VIN Check Before Buying a Used Car?
An estimated 30-50% of used cars sold cross-border in Europe have tampered mileage. Carlytics catches odometer rollbacks, undisclosed accident damage, stolen-vehicle flags, and open safety recalls by scanning 900M+ records across 47+ countries -- all from a single 17-character VIN, starting free.
Don't risk thousands on a used car with hidden problems. A free VIN check takes seconds and can save you from costly surprises.
Detect Odometer Fraud
An estimated 30-50% of used cars in Europe have tampered mileage. A VIN history check reveals odometer rollback and mileage discrepancies that sellers try to hide.
Uncover Hidden Accident Damage
Structural damage from past accidents may not be visible during a physical inspection. A vehicle history report shows collision records the seller may not disclose.
Verify Stolen Vehicle Status
Over 600,000 vehicles are stolen in the EU each year, many resold across borders. Our stolen car database check confirms the vehicle is legally clear before you buy.
Check Cross-Border Import History
Vehicles imported from abroad may have different specs, undisclosed damage, or missing service records. Trace the full registration and import history with a VIN check.
Ready to check your vehicle?
Enter the VIN number below to get a free instant report.
Sample Vehicle Report
Every Carlytics report covers 24 sections including decoded specs, mileage history, safety recalls, theft status, market value from 348,000+ listings, and cross-border import records. The full report costs CA$12.90 and is available instantly as an interactive page and downloadable PDF.
Here's an example of the comprehensive vehicle report you'll receive. Our reports provide detailed information to help you make informed decisions about any vehicle.
Toyota Corolla (2019)
Silver • 1.8L • Petrol • Automatic
Vehicle Information
Technical Inspection Status
Vehicle Summary
Why a Canadian used car needs a different check to an American one
Canada shares a continent, a road network and most of a car market with the United States — and then diverges in the three places that decide whether a used car is a good buy.
Most cars on Canadian roads were either built in North America or built for it, which is genuinely useful: their VINs are written to the North American convention, the manufacturer's own build data describes them, and safety-recall campaigns are recorded against the make, model and year in a form that can be looked up. A VIN decode is therefore unusually informative in Canada compared with markets whose fleets are mostly imported second-hand.
The divergence starts with the border. Cars cross it constantly in both directions, and the record does not always cross with them. A car written off in one country and repaired in the other, or branded in one province and re-registered in another, can arrive with a history that looks shorter and cleaner than it is. Provincial title branding is not a single national system, and a brand applied under one province's rules does not automatically appear under another's.
Salt, and why a Canadian car ages differently
The single most Canadian failure mode is corrosion. Road salt across most of the country attacks brake and fuel lines, subframes, rocker panels and suspension mounting points, and it does so on a schedule that has nothing to do with mileage. A ten-year-old car with 90,000 km that spent every winter on salted roads can be in worse structural condition than a fifteen-year-old car with 200,000 km from a dry province.
This has a direct consequence for how you should read any history report, ours included. Odometer readings, service records and title brands describe events; they do not describe rust. No database anywhere holds a corrosion score for your specific car. The check that finds it is a hoist and a flashlight, and in Canada that inspection is worth more than it is almost anywhere else.
Imported from Europe? The report changes shape
A growing share of interesting used cars in Canada were built for Europe and brought over privately once they cleared the age rules. For those, the North American reference data simply does not describe the car: a European-market build has different equipment, different emissions calibration and, crucially, different recall campaigns from the same nameplate sold new in Canada.
We apply North American reference data only to North American VINs, deliberately, because applying it to a European car produces confident nonsense — the wrong engine, the wrong trim, a recall that was never issued for that build. For a European VIN (starting W, V, S, T, Y or Z) the report is built from European reference data instead, which is where our own coverage is deepest. Either way, the rule is the same: the car is decoded against the market it was built for, never against the market it happens to be parked in.
One practical consequence: a recall listed for the American version of a nameplate may not apply to a European-built example of the same model, and vice versa. If you are buying a private import, ask the manufacturer's Canadian arm whether the campaign applies to that specific VIN before assuming either way.
Kilometres, miles, and the oldest trick at the border
Canada records kilometres; the United States records miles. A dash reading 90,000 in an American-market car is 145,000 km, and a car imported from the south with an unconverted cluster produces exactly the kind of ambiguity that lets a mileage claim drift. It is not always deliberate — but the effect on price is the same either way, and confirming which unit the cluster displays takes ten seconds.
The related trick is the gap in the record. A car exported out of one country and imported into the other loses its continuity of registration, and a reading taken in the destination market is simply whatever the odometer said on arrival. That gap is where wound-back mileage survives, in Canada as everywhere else, and the defence is the same: collect every dated reading you can find and check that the line only goes up.
What our check can and cannot show for a Canadian car
We would rather you buy with accurate expectations than be disappointed after paying CA$12.90. Here is the honest split for a car being sold in Canada.
What the check can tell you
- A full factory decode from the VIN — make, model, year, engine, transmission, body style and plant of origin — using the reference data for the market the car was actually built for.
- Open safety recall campaigns recorded for that make, model and year.
- Known issues and owner-complaint patterns reported for the model, including the failures that tend to show up with age rather than mileage.
- A stolen-vehicle check against the public databases we can reach.
- Public listing history and market-value context where the VIN has appeared in advertised stock we can see.
What it cannot tell you
- A provincial title-brand history. Branding is administered province by province, we hold no provincial registration record, and there is no single national title register for us to read.
- Canadian insurance claims or accident-repair records. Those sit with insurers and are not something we can reach.
- Lien or money-owing status. That is a provincial registry search and it is the check with legal consequences — run it yourself.
- A corrosion assessment. Salt damage is the most common expensive fault in this market and it exists in no database; it is found on a hoist.
- American recall campaigns applied to a European-built car, or the reverse. We decode a car against the market it was built for, on purpose.
If a report claims a complete Canadian title history for a low flat fee, ask which register it read. The answer decides whether you are buying a record or a guess.
Buying a used car in Canada, in the right order
Five steps, cheapest first, in the sequence that catches the expensive problems earliest.
- 1
Read the VIN off the car
Windscreen plate and door jamb, and check they agree with each other and with the paperwork. The first character tells you a great deal immediately: 1, 4 or 5 for the United States, 2 for Canada, 3 for Mexico, J for Japan, K for Korea, and W, V, S or Z for Europe.
- 2
Run the free decode
It costs nothing and settles whether the car matches its advertisement. Make, model year, engine and body style are the four that catch a misdescribed listing fastest, and they also confirm which market the car was built for — which decides how the rest of the report should be read.
- 3
Run the provincial lien search
Money owing on a car can cost you the car itself, and no history report protects you from that. It is a provincial registry search, it is cheap, and it is the check with actual legal consequences. Do it before you spend anything on diligence.
- 4
Collect every dated odometer reading you can find
Service invoices, inspection records, previous advertisements, the import paperwork if it crossed a border. Confirm the units. You are looking for a line that only ever goes up at a believable rate — anything flat or falling is the signal to walk.
- 5
Buy the report, then put the car on a hoist
The full report adds the factory build, recall campaigns, known failure patterns, the theft check and market context for CA$12.90. Then pay a mechanic to look underneath it, because in a salt-belt market the structural condition is the thing that decides whether the car is worth buying at all.
Where to go next
If the car came north from the United States, read the US import check for Canadian buyers, which covers branded titles and what survives the border. If you want to know what a salvage or rebuilt brand actually means here, the Canadian salvage and rebuilt title guide sets it out. And if you arrived looking for a cheaper alternative to the incumbent report, the honest comparison is here — including where the incumbent is genuinely the better buy.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I check a VIN before buying a used car in Canada?
Is this an affordable alternative to a full vehicle history report?
Can Carlytics detect salvage and flood-rebuilt cars?
What does a VIN check tell you?
Is it safe to share my VIN number?
How much does a vehicle history report cost?
Which countries does Carlytics cover?
Before you pay — read these
Independent rankings and head-to-head comparisons against the major European VIN check services.
Best VIN Check in Europe 2026
7 services ranked by price, free tier, coverage and accuracy.
carVertical Alternative
Same registry data for 70% less. Full feature comparison.
Cheapest Vehicle History Report
Compare vehicle history report prices — from CA$12.90.
Carfax Alternatives for European Cars
Why Carfax doesn't work in Europe — and what to use instead.
Last updated