How much is my car worth?

Why a registration alone cannot value a car

Enter a plate into a valuation site and it derives make, model, derivative, year and engine from the registration record, then looks up what cars in that category have been selling for. Everything that makes your car different from the category — its actual mileage, its condition, its service evidence, whether it has been repaired after an accident — is either asked for as a self-declaration or assumed.

That is why two valuations of the same car can differ by a large margin, and why a trade offer and a private-sale estimate are not the same number. They are pricing different things: one is what a dealer will risk on an unseen car, the other is what a private buyer might pay after inspecting it.

None of this makes valuation tools useless. It makes them a starting bracket rather than an answer, and it makes the evidence you bring the thing that moves you within that bracket.

The three things that actually move the number

Mileage is the biggest single lever, and it is the one a buyer can independently verify. The DVSA records the odometer reading at every MOT, and that trail cannot be edited by a seller. A car whose stated mileage matches its MOT trail is worth more than an identical car where the seller is asking to be believed.

Condition is second, and it is only partly visible from records. But MOT advisories are a real, free, third-party read on it: they are what a DVSA tester wrote down about wear that had not yet failed. A car whose advisories appear once and then disappear was being maintained; one carrying the same advisory for four consecutive years was not.

Evidence is third and is the one most sellers under-invest in. Invoices with matching mileages, a coherent MOT history and a clean explanation for any gap all reduce a buyer's perceived risk, and reduced risk is exactly what a higher price buys.

What high mileage really costs you, and what it does not

Mileage is priced far more crudely by the market than by engineering reality. Round numbers matter disproportionately — crossing 100,000 miles moves a price more than the 10,000 miles either side of it would suggest — and buyers apply the same discount to gentle motorway miles as to hard urban ones.

Our own MOT dataset shows why a blanket rule is wrong. Across the popular models where we hold enough tests to be meaningful, the mean odometer reading recorded at the five-year MOT ranges from around 47,000 miles to nearly 150,000 depending on the model. "Normal" for a small city car and "normal" for a van are not remotely the same number.

The practical implication for a seller: if your car is above the typical figure for its model, say so and evidence why — long-distance commuting, a service record that keeps pace. If it is well below, expect a careful buyer to check the MOT trail rather than simply be pleased, because unusually low mileage for the age is also the pattern clocking imitates.

Free things to do before you accept an offer

All of these cost nothing and take about ten minutes in total.

The last point is the one most sellers miss. A buyer who has already satisfied themselves about the mileage and history has fewer reasons to negotiate, which is worth more than a slightly higher asking price that invites haggling.

• Pull your own MOT history and read it as a buyer would — the mileage trail, the recurring advisories, any gaps
• Check the DVLA record for anything that will surprise a buyer: an export marker, a colour that does not match, a very recent V5C reissue
• Gather invoices and check each one's mileage sits on the MOT curve
• Fix or price the cheap recurring advisories — a wiper blade or a bulb costs less than the discount a buyer applies to a fail-prone car
• Check for any open DVSA safety recall and get it done; it is free at a franchised dealer and removes a buyer objection
• Show the buyer the record rather than telling them about it

Where to get an actual figure

For a number, use a dedicated valuation service — several are free and they will give you separate private-sale, part-exchange and trade figures. Treat the spread between those three as information: it tells you what the market thinks the risk of an unseen car is.

What we do is the evidence half. Our free check returns the DVSA MOT record for your registration — every test since 2005 with the recorded mileage, defects and advisories — alongside the DVLA vehicle record and any open safety recall. That is the material a buyer will look at anyway, and seeing it before they do is the cheapest preparation available.

We hold no pricing data and make no claim about what any car is worth. And a clean MOT record is not a statement that a car is in good condition; it reports what the official test record contains.