Buying a second-hand car is always, for one thing or another, an odyssey. It is true that the used market has great advantages, such as better prices and immediate availability of the models, but it is also true that we can find great deceptions or even fall victim to a scam when purchasing a used vehicle.
Beyond carrying out all the pertinent checks, checking the car from top to bottom and trying to choose a seller or establishment that we trust, it is necessary to carry out one last check before signing any sales contract or paying for that car.
Thanks to the records of the Directorate General of Traffic, it is possible to access a kind of vehicle history that allows us to know in what real and administrative state it is. The DGT vehicle report can be downloaded through its electronic headquarters and there are different types of document, depending on the information that we are most interested in knowing about the car we want to buy.
DGT vehicle reports
The first is the most basic report, which is free. Simply with the vehicle registration you can request the document, which will inform us of the date of the first registration in Spain and if there is any incident, such as charges. In any case, it is best to pay the 8.67 euros for the complete report and be able to access all the data related to that vehicle.
In this second document, we will know all the administrative information available about the vehicle that interests us and, only, entering the registration number. The data available are, for example, the identification of the owner, the municipality where the vehicle is domiciled, the ITV history, the mileage, the number of owners it has had, possible loads… the EuroNCAP and the maintenance that has been carried out. .
Specific reports from the DGT
For the same price, we can obtain a report only of technical data if that is what interests us (for example, power, type of fuel, maximum masses, ITV inspection history, EuroNCAP result, etc…) or a load report.
This last document is used, above all, to find out information about the charges or limitations that could be included in the Vehicle Registry for the vehicle consulted. For example, a reservation of title, problems or non-payment of any of the taxes related to the use and enjoyment of a vehicle, any condition that affects the transfer of ownership of the car… In other words, any type of impediment that may affect to the change of ownership of the car or any anomalous situation that should be known before buying the vehicle.
