Buyers rightly ask where our data comes from. Transparency about sourcing is not a courtesy, it is the basis of trust. A history report is only as credible as the records beneath it, and a report that will not say where its findings originate is asking for faith rather than offering proof. In this article we open the bonnet on the categories of official source that feed a certified Autocertif report, and explain why each one matters and what it can and cannot tell you.
National vehicle registries
Registries are the backbone of any credible history. They record registration events, keeper changes and, in many jurisdictions, official mileage readings captured at inspection. Because they are maintained by public authorities and underpin legal ownership, their entries carry real evidential weight.
From a registry we can reconstruct who held the vehicle and when, where it was registered, and whether its movement between jurisdictions matches the story a seller tells. This is the spine onto which every other finding is attached.
Insurance and write-off databases
Insurers maintain records of total losses and significant claims. These databases reveal write-offs that a cosmetic repair can otherwise hide entirely, and they are among the most valuable signals in any report. A car can be made to look immaculate; the insurer record of why it was written off does not buff out.
Read alongside the registry timeline, a write-off marker gains context: when it happened, under which keeper, and whether the vehicle was returned to the road afterward. Context is what turns a flag into an understanding.
Accredited inspection bodies
Inspection records contribute condition and, importantly, dated mileage readings taken by an accredited third party rather than the seller. A sequence of these readings is the most reliable defence against odometer tampering, because each is a fixed point that a later figure must be consistent with.
Regulatory authorities
Regulators publish recalls and compliance information. A vehicle with an outstanding safety recall, or one that does not meet the requirements of the market it is being sold into, is a real risk that no advert will mention. Drawing on regulatory sources lets the report surface these obligations before they become the buyer's problem.
Why aggregation is not a source
Scraped classifieds and crowd-sourced submissions are not authoritative. They may occasionally provide useful context, but they are never the basis of a certified finding. The line matters, because much of what circulates online is recycled, outdated or simply wrong, and dressing it up as data does not make it true.
- Public registries for registration and keeper history.
- Insurer databases for write-offs and significant claims.
- Accredited inspection bodies for condition and dated mileage.
- Regulatory authorities for recalls and market compliance.
We keep a strict line between sourced facts and unverified noise. Everything inside the seal is the former; nothing inside it is the latter.
Keeping sources current
Official data changes constantly, and a source is only as good as the moment it was last consulted. Our integrations are maintained so that a report reflects the state of the record when you request it, not a snapshot taken weeks earlier. Currency is part of certification, and it is why we invest in live connections rather than convenient archives.
How the sources work together
No single source tells the whole story, and the value of a certified report lies in how the sources corroborate one another. A registry establishes when the vehicle changed hands; an insurer record explains why a particular keeper let it go; an inspection reading confirms the mileage at that moment; a regulatory entry shows whether an outstanding recall was ever addressed. Read together, these layers turn isolated facts into a coherent account.
This corroboration is also the strongest defence against deception. A single record can be misleading in isolation, but a finding that holds across several independent official sources is very hard to fake. Where the sources disagree, that disagreement is itself a finding, and one a certified report is built to surface rather than smooth over.
One source is a data point. Several official sources in agreement are a fact. That is the difference certification is built on.
Putting the sources to work
All of this sourcing exists to serve a single, accessible report. A 2-day trial costs €3.99, after which access continues at €49.99/month, renewing automatically with the freedom to cancel at any time. The depth of the sources is the value; the simplicity of the access is the promise.
