How fast is a lookup?

It is a single REST call, and results inside the freshness window are served from our own records rather than re-fetched, which is the common case on a popular vehicle. Most instant-offer journeys call it on the registration field losing focus.

Can we call this from the browser?

You should not: your API key would be exposed. Call it from your server. Keys can also be scoped to specific products so an integration only reaches what it needs.

What stops someone hammering a public form?

You are charged per successful lookup, so a public form should be rate-limited on your side. Our own endpoints are throttled too, and you can scope a key to a single product to cap the exposure.

Do you cover salvage and non-runners?

We will tell you what is recorded against the vehicle, including write-off category, scrappage and Certificate of Destruction markers. We do not produce salvage-specific valuations.

For buying services & instant offers

Price the car before the customer has finished typing the reg.

Everything an instant-offer journey needs from a single registration: a current valuation, the factory specification, imagery and a provenance check: fast enough to show a number on the first screen.

Start free Talk to sales

One field: registration in, offer out
Three positions: trade, retail and private
Per lookup: no minimum, no contract

What gets in the way

Long vehicle-details forms losing customers before the offer
Indicative figures that move sharply once the vehicle is inspected
Offers made on vehicles with undisclosed provenance markers
No image to show until the customer uploads one

What you can do instead

Show an indicative figure from the registration alone
Anchor the offer on a current market position, not a guess
Screen out problem vehicles before committing to collection
Illustrate the vehicle in the journey before any photos exist

How it works

Three steps

Registration in

One field on the landing page. Everything else is derived rather than asked.

Value and screen

Pull a valuation, the specification and a provenance check in the same journey.

Offer out

Show the figure immediately, with the checks already done behind it.

The offer has to arrive before the customer does the maths

Instant-offer journeys live or die on how quickly a number appears. Every field between the landing page and the figure costs completions, and asking someone to identify their own vehicle from a dropdown of derivatives is the most expensive field of the lot. A registration lookup collapses that whole section into one input and returns a specification more accurate than the customer would have selected.

An indicative figure that survives inspection

The gap between the online offer and the figure paid at collection is the single biggest source of complaint in this model. Some of that gap is genuine condition, but a good deal of it is a starting number derived from a model average rather than the specific vehicle. Anchoring on a valuation that accounts for the actual specification, and checking the mileage record for inconsistencies up front, narrows the gap before anyone has driven anywhere.

Screen before you commit to collection

Sending a driver to collect a vehicle with outstanding finance on it, or one recorded as written off or stolen, is an expensive way to find out. A provenance check at the point of offer is a few pounds against the cost of a wasted collection and an unwinding transaction, and it returns the mileage record, which is where instant-offer models most often get caught.

Recommended APIs

Where to start

Vehicle Valuation

Trade, retail and private values for any UK vehicle.

From 16p / lookup

Provenance Check

Write-off, outstanding finance, stolen and scrapped markers in one call.

From £2.34 / lookup

Spec & Options

The factory equipment and options fitted to a specific vehicle.

From 10p / lookup

Vehicle Images

A studio-quality image of the vehicle, resolved from its registration.

From 1p / lookup

Where it gets used

Common jobs

Instant online offer

Registration in, indicative figure out, on the first screen, with the specification derived rather than asked for.

Offer validation before collection

Re-check provenance and the mileage record before dispatching a driver, so problems surface before the cost is incurred.

Salvage and non-runners

Identify vehicles already carrying a write-off category or a Certificate of Destruction, which need a different route and a different price.

Onward remarketing

Use the same specification and imagery to list the vehicle onward without re-keying anything.

FAQ

Online car buying & instant offers questions

How fast is a lookup?: It is a single REST call, and results inside the freshness window are served from our own records rather than re-fetched, which is the common case on a popular vehicle. Most instant-offer journeys call it on the registration field losing focus.
Can we call this from the browser?: You should not: your API key would be exposed. Call it from your server. Keys can also be scoped to specific products so an integration only reaches what it needs.
What stops someone hammering a public form?: You are charged per successful lookup, so a public form should be rate-limited on your side. Our own endpoints are throttled too, and you can scope a key to a single product to cap the exposure.
Do you cover salvage and non-runners?: We will tell you what is recorded against the vehicle, including write-off category, scrappage and Certificate of Destruction markers. We do not produce salvage-specific valuations.

Official registers

Vehicle records from the DVLA Vehicle Enquiry Service, MOT records from the DVSA MOT History API.

Charged on delivery

You are charged on a successful lookup. A lookup that returns nothing costs nothing.

No lock-in

No contract and no minimum. Credits last 12 months; monthly plans are rolling.

UK data protection

You act as controller and we act as processor for delivery, under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Try it on your own data

Create an account, get starter credits, and run your first lookup in minutes.

Start free