Press kit
MOT Checkup press kit — UK MOT data, founder quotes and brand assets
Everything a journalist, broadcaster or blogger needs to cover MOT Checkup accurately — without waiting on a reply. Quotes are cleared for direct citation; brand assets are free to use; the founder is available for interviews.
In short
MOT Checkup is a free UK MOT history check service founded by Bertram Sargla. We surface DVSA-sourced MOT records — pass/fail results, mileage readings, advisories and dangerous defects — by registration number, and layer AI analysis on top to flag clocked mileage and recurring faults. For press enquiries, contact press@motcheckup.co.uk. Founder quotes, brand assets and interview availability are below.
Press contact
Direct line to the founder. We aim to respond within one UK working day; same-day for time-sensitive deadlines — flag the deadline in the subject line.
About MOT Checkup
MOT Checkup is a free UK MOT history check service operated at motcheckup.co.uk. The site lets any UK driver, buyer or trader enter a vehicle registration and instantly see the full DVSA-sourced MOT record — pass and fail results, mileage at every test, advisory notices, failure reasons and dangerous defects, going back to 2005 in England, Scotland and Wales (2017 in Northern Ireland). Vehicle specifications come from the DVLA Vehicle Enquiry Service, and independent crash-test ratings are pulled from Euro NCAP where available.
MOT Checkup was founded in 2026 by Bertram Sargla, who continues to maintain the service personally with help from open-source contributors. The core MOT history check is free, requires no sign-up and has no daily limit. AI-powered reliability scoring and mileage anomaly detection are layered on top of the official data — every AI-generated claim is grounded in the underlying DVSA record. Around 40 million MOT tests are conducted in the UK every year, and MOT Checkup exists to make that data immediately useful to the public who pays for it.
Pre-formatted quotes
Cleared for direct citation. Attribute as: Bertram Sargla, founder of MOT Checkup. If you need a quote on a topic not covered here, email the press contact above.
On clocked mileage and used-car fraud · Founder quote available for citation
“Mileage clocking is one of the easiest forms of used-car fraud to spot if you know where to look. Every UK MOT test from 2005 onwards records the odometer reading, and that trail is public. If a car's dashboard reads lower than its most recent MOT, the vehicle has either been clocked or had its instrument cluster swapped — and both are reasons to walk away.”
— Bertram Sargla, founder of MOT Checkup
On mot vs hpi checks · Founder quote available for citation
“An MOT history check and an HPI-style check answer different questions. The MOT record tells you whether the car has been physically maintained — pass rates, advisories, recurring defects. An HPI check tells you whether the paperwork is clean — outstanding finance, write-off markers, stolen status. Most buyers need both, and only one of them needs to cost money.”
— Bertram Sargla, founder of MOT Checkup
On common mot failures in the uk · Founder quote available for citation
“Year after year, the same components dominate UK MOT failures: tyres, lights and brakes. None of these are surprises to a competent driver, and most are cheaper to fix at home in advance than to fail an MOT and pay for a retest. Looking at a car's MOT history before you buy tells you whether the previous owner treated maintenance as routine or as a fire to be fought.”
— Bertram Sargla, founder of MOT Checkup
On mot regulation changes · Founder quote available for citation
“The UK MOT regime is one of the most data-rich vehicle inspection systems in the world, and any change to it — frequency, exemptions, electric-vehicle rules — has direct implications for road safety and for the second-hand market. We track those changes closely because our users rely on us to surface what they actually mean for the car on their drive.”
— Bertram Sargla, founder of MOT Checkup
On ai in vehicle history checks · Founder quote available for citation
“AI in this space is only useful if it stays anchored to verifiable data. We use language models to summarise MOT histories and surface patterns a human reader might miss across a decade of test results — but every claim the AI makes is grounded in the underlying DVSA record. If we cannot point at the row of data that produced an insight, the insight does not ship.”
— Bertram Sargla, founder of MOT Checkup
On why mot checkup is free · Founder quote available for citation
“MOT history is open data. The DVSA publishes it, anyone can query it through the official API, and we believe charging a UK driver for access to information about their own car — or one they are about to buy — is hard to justify. We keep MOT Checkup free because the cost of running the lookup is genuinely small, and because more people checking before they buy means fewer dangerous cars on the road.”
— Bertram Sargla, founder of MOT Checkup
Brand assets
Logo
Download the logo as PNG: /logo.png.
TODO: a hosted PNG logo is not yet live at this path. Until it is, journalists should email the press contact for a high-resolution copy.
Brand colours
Primary #0EA5E9
Brand blue — buttons, links, accents
Foreground #0F172A
Body text on light backgrounds
Background #FFFFFF
Page background (light)
Muted #F1F5F9
Card and section panels
Brand voice
MOT Checkup writes the way a competent mechanic talks: plain English, no jargon, no marketing fluff. We assume the reader has not been sold to before and does not want to be. We use British spellings (tyre, not tire; colour, not color), we quote prices in pounds, and we cite official sources by name (DVSA, DVLA, Euro NCAP) so a reader can verify any claim themselves.
Available for interviews on
- UK MOT failure trends and what they reveal about the used-car market
- Used-car fraud — clocking, cloning and how data exposes it
- MOT regulation changes and their impact on UK drivers
- AI in vehicle history checks — what works, what does not
- Open vehicle data and consumer protection
Bertram is based in the UK, available for radio, podcast and on-camera interviews via Zoom or in-person in central London with advance notice.
Cite us
Harvard format (UK academic convention). Replace the access date if your style guide requires the date you actually retrieved the page.
MOT Checkup (2026) 'MOT Checkup press kit'. Available at: https://www.motcheckup.co.uk/press (Accessed: 24 May 2026).
Recent research
Research report · 2026
Most reliable cars in the UK 2026
MOT Checkup's data-led look at UK reliability, drawing on MOT failure rates and independent dependability studies.
Read the report