Check the 17-digit VIN number before buying a used Kia online!
No one wants to buy the proverbial cat in a bag, probably not even the most dedicated cat lovers. Equally, anyone purchasing a car will probably want to know as much as they can about the state their newest potential purchase is currently in.
In the market which is considered as not being particularly transparent, there is a typical belief that buyers need to check used cars live. But, in the age of the IoT rising and trips to Mars being planned, must they? Is it still the critical step?
In a time before the internet, buying a car could have required hours upon hours, especially if you weren’t buying fresh off a dealership – finding the right vehicle, arranging the meetings and having a look at and inside the car; all made no easier for those who have less of a knack for the mechanical and just want the best deal they can get.
Nowadays, the situation is completely different. With just a few clicks, you can easily find offers for hundreds and hundreds of cars, for every taste, occasion, and requirement.
The problem is that just as always, you want to make sure that what you are paying for is the best deal you can get and that it is just as advertised.
You have to, as before, go to check it out live or have someone else go, perhaps someone with more experience. But there is still only so much you can check during a brief meeting.
How distance brings pressure
Imagine you find your dream Kia car, but it’s a few hundred kilometers away. The advert says it’s in mint condition or perhaps just some ten thousand kilometers on its odometer.
The price is quite good. The pictures look good too – no bumps and scratches to be seen. You are quite excited to take some time off to make the trip.
You get there and look at the car – seems all ok, nothing particularly suspicious until… you stumble upon some nasty chassis rust that the seller does his best to distract you from.
Or perhaps when you take it for a test drive, you realize that the gear shifts aren’t as smooth as you’d expect, the engine stutters. Depending on how bad the problem is, you may have just wasted a full day or more on a dud.
Or perhaps even worse – finding nothing too suspicious, you make the deal. Money out, car keys in. You drive away with your new and problem-free Kia.
Until a few months later, you’re now dealing with one breakdown after another. Or you find out that the car had been clocked, stolen or any number of more or less plausible scenarios. Now you’ve lost not only time but also money.
Employ modern technologies
All that said, just as the process of finding your dream Kia has become much easier thanks to new technologies, so has its evaluation from a distance. The key is three letters that actually mean 17 symbols – the car’s VIN.
As you may already know, the vehicle’s VIN, or Vehicle Identification Number, is a unique set of 17 characters individually assigned to each and every vehicle to easily identify them.
All details of the specific car’s “biography” – from the first registration to the last purchase, from accidents to insurance coverage, etc. – are being recorded in various registries and databases using a VIN number.
So, using the VIN, carVertical can find out just about everything possible about your dream Kia’s history: from basic facts (production year, engine power, fuel or transmission type, etc.) to more specific and useful data.
It includes authentic mileage and archive photos at different times, if it had any damages, if it has been stolen, and so on. When you have various data from different dates, you can compare them and spot mileage fraud, concealed accidents, or other discrepancies in the seller’s story.
The reports also observe upcoming maintenance works, most popular model bugs and provide an equipment list installed in the factory.
Moreover, carVertical gives you optimal market price range and even evaluates how easy it is to sell this kind of model. Kia cars from the USA also get a NMVTIS report which provides data on the state of title, odometer reading, brand, total loss, and salvage history.
Save your time and money
Some details you would probably not be able to find without dedicating hours upon hours of research for each vehicle. The majority of them you wouldn’t find at all; unless you had been trained for that and have access to numerous databases around the world.
However, using carVertical, you can look it up just as easily as you perhaps found your Kia – in a few clicks. You might save yourself a wasted trip, or otherwise, the chances of any detail of the car’s history slipping under the radar will already be far lower.
Hence, with carVertical, you have a powerful tool to find your dream Kia of perfect quality or at least negotiate the correct price and get no surprises.
