Smart History Check
A full Smart history check costs £15 and takes about a minute.
Included in your report:
- Outstanding finance
- Write-off markers
- Stolen check
- MOT mileage record
- Keeper history
- Colour changes
Example report section
See the Smart history before you buy.
This is how a real report flags a problem Smart, drawn straight from official records. The same checks run on every reg you enter.
Write-Off History
Information found
Write-Off Record
Mileage
Information found
Mileage
48,210
miles
Mileage Issues
Issue Detected
Mileage discrepancy
A later MOT reading is lower than an earlier one. We recommend verifying the mileage with the seller.
Example data shown. Your report will show the recorded history for the reg you check.
What a Smart history check helps you spot.
The risks that cost buyers the most are the ones you cannot spot on a test drive. These are the ones the report puts in front of you.
City knocks
Smarts live in tight streets and car parks. Small impacts are common and some end as write-offs.
Lots of keepers
Cheap second cars change hands often. A long keeper list on a small car is normal, but read the dates.
Low miles, hard miles
A Smart on 30,000 urban miles has worked harder than a diesel estate on 80,000 motorway miles.
Smart history check
Smart cars live a very particular life.
The ForTwo exists because of parking. It was bought by people in London, Bristol, Brighton and Edinburgh who wanted something they could put nose in to a gap other cars had to pass. The ForFour added two doors and a back seat without changing the mission. The EQ versions moved the same idea to electric power for short urban trips.
That means almost every used Smart in Britain has spent its life in traffic. Low recorded mileage is normal and it is not the good news it looks like. Cold starts, constant stop start running and tight parking do more damage per mile than open road driving. The MOT history and the write-off record tell you far more about a Smart than the number on the odometer.
Risks to check on a used Smart.
Every used Smart has a history. These are the specific things worth confirming before you commit.
Write-offs from small impacts
A Smart is cheap to buy and not cheap to repair properly. A parking scrape, a kerbed corner or a low speed shunt can push the repair cost past the value, and the insurer records a Cat N or Cat S. Many are then repaired and sold on. Check for the marker before you view.
Rapid keeper turnover
Second cars, city runabouts and first cars all change hands quickly, and Smarts are all three. Several keepers in a few years is not automatically a problem. Very short gaps between changes, or a car sold on within weeks of purchase, usually means someone found something out.
Finance on the EQ models
Electric ForTwos were commonly sold on PCP because of the list price, and those agreements run for years. A car reaching its second or third owner may still be inside the original term. If the balance is unsettled the lender can recover the car from you. The report names the lender and agreement.
Urban mileage that misleads
Ten thousand miles of city crawling is not a light life. Check the MOT readings for the annual pattern, because a car showing almost no miles for two years followed by a sale is often one that sat unused or was used and then corrected. Every DVSA reading appears in the report in date order.
Run a Smart history check
Check a Smart before you buy.
Enter the registration to see the key facts before you go any further.
- Instant results
- All checks included
- £30,000 data guarantee
What a Smart history check covers.
Every Carpeep report runs the same core checks against the registration. This is what each one tells you.
Finance
Flags any outstanding finance recorded against the vehicle, so you know whether a lender still has a legal claim.
Car finance checkAccident and write-off history
Shows any recorded accident or insurance write-off marker (Cat A, B, S or N), with the category and date.
Write-off checkStolen status
Cross-references police records to flag any theft marker against the registration and VIN.
Stolen car checkMileage history
Builds a mileage timeline from MOT readings so you can spot drops or inconsistencies that point to clocking.
Mileage checkKeeper & import status
Keeper history, import and export markers, plate changes and the recorded vehicle details.
Import checkThe used Smart market.
Which models move and where the risk sits.
The petrol ForTwo is still the volume seller, mostly as a cheap second car or a first car. Prices are low, so run the check before you spend a day travelling to view one. Write-off markers and clustered keeper changes are the two things most likely to change your mind about a given car.
The ForFour and the EQ models attract a different buyer. The ForFour works as a small family second car and the EQ appeals to short range urban drivers who charge at home. On the EQ in particular, treat finance as the first thing to confirm, because the original agreements were long and many are still running.
Before you buy
When to run a Smart history check.
Run it on any Smart being sold privately in a city. These cars take small hits constantly, and a tidy respray tells you nothing about whether an insurer once wrote the car off.
Run it on every EQ ForTwo. Electric models carried the highest new prices in the range, which means the largest finance agreements and the greatest chance of an unsettled balance following the car to you.
Where our data comes from.
Always from official records. We do not create, edit or estimate any data.
DVLA
Registration, keeper history, import and export status and recorded vehicle details.
DVSA
Full MOT test history including results, advisories and mileage at each test.
Insurance industry records
Recorded write-off markers such as Cat A, B, S and N from insurance industry records.
UK finance lenders
Outstanding finance agreements including HP, PCP and conditional sale records.
Police stolen vehicle records
Stolen vehicle markers from UK police databases, checked against the registration and VIN.
Vehicle identity checks
VIN and registration cross-referenced to flag plate changes, cloning or identity mismatches.
Smart History Check FAQs
Why do so many Smart cars have write-off markers?
Because the repair cost and the car value sit close together. A modest impact that would be a routine repair on a larger car can exceed a Smart's market value, so the insurer writes it off and sells the salvage. The car is often repaired and returned to the road. The marker stays on the record permanently, and Carpeep reports it.
Is low mileage a good sign on a ForTwo?
Not on its own. Smarts do short urban journeys, which is the hardest work an engine does. A car with 25,000 city miles may have had more cold starts and more clutch and brake cycles than a motorway car with three times the mileage. Read the MOT advisories for what has actually been wearing out.
Should I worry about a long list of keepers?
Look at the dates rather than the count. Small cheap cars move around and five keepers over twelve years is unremarkable. Three keepers in eighteen months is different, especially if one of them held it for a few weeks. The report gives you every keeper change date so you can see the pattern instead of guessing.
Does Carpeep tell me an EQ's battery health?
No. Battery condition is not in any public vehicle record, so no reg lookup can give you it honestly. Ask the seller to show you a state of health reading from the car or a dealer diagnostic. What Carpeep does cover on an EQ is finance, write-off and stolen markers, MOT history, mileage readings and keeper history.
What does the £15 report cover?
Outstanding finance, insurance write-off markers including Cat A, B, S and N and the legacy C and D, police stolen markers, mileage taken from DVSA MOT readings, the full MOT test and advisory history, registered keeper history and keeper change dates, plate transfers, colour changes, import and export markers, scrapped markers, VIN cross-reference, tax status and specification.
Check a car before you buy
Don't buy a car you haven't checked.
Enter the registration and get the key facts before you commit.
- Full vehicle history
- No account required
- £30,000 data guarantee