Independent VIN appraisal record
Before you take a trade-in offer, see your car the way the appraiser sees it: the history they'll pull, the market range they'll check, and the fair offer window — every deduction printed. No subscription needed.
How an appraisal actually works
Title brands, theft records, the odometer trail — the NMVTIS file every dealer checks before quoting you. Your report shows you the same file, spelled out.
Appraisers know which engines eat oil and which transmissions die young. Our known-issues layer prints the documented patterns for your exact year and model — with the NHTSA complaint counts to back them up.
Retail average, minus reconditioning, minus margin, minus selling costs. That's the whole trick. We print every line of it and grade the offer in your hand against the result.
The published formula
Sample: 2015 Nissan Altima 2.5 SV · 88,000 mi · good condition
A fair offer lands inside the window. The numbers shift with condition and market — the shape never does.
$600 under the bottom of the fair window with a clean record — counter with the window, or get a competing cash offer.
Estimator sites hand you one mystery number and sell your phone number to four dealerships. We show the working: what the retail range is, what each deduction is for, and where the window lands. If a line looks wrong for your car, you can see it and argue with it.
Bring the dealer's number. It gets stamped LOWBALL, FAIR, or STRONG against the window — with the dollar gap, so you know exactly how much is on the table.
See the full sample report →Or read the math itself: how dealers calculate your trade-in · is my offer a lowball?
We show receipts
Every claim in our guides traces to a public source you can check yourself — mostly NHTSA's complaint and recall databases. Here's the kind of number we mean.
364 of them are powertrain. The CVT is the whole ballgame on this car — a replacement runs $3,000–$4,000, enough to erase any deal.
Read the Altima file → 2,112 NHTSA complaints — 2018 CR-VEngine (242) and fuel system (204) lead the record — the 1.5T oil-dilution question, and the 30-second dipstick test that answers it.
Read the CR-V file → 427 Electrical complaints — 2011 Grand CherokeeOf 1,638 total — electrical is complaint #1. The TIPM story, the recall check, and the no-start questions to ask before you buy.
Read the Grand Cherokee file →23 model files and counting — no fluff, the actual math and the real gotchas. Browse all the guides →
Straight pricing
One report before you walk into the dealership can be worth thousands on the trade. We charge per car, not per month.
Every flag spelled out + your model's documented patterns. No card.
Start freeThe one car you're looking at this weekend.
Shopping a shortlist. Most popular.
Serious hunt or flipping. $2 a car.
Every paid report: NMVTIS title / theft / odometer records · market range · fair trade-in window · offer grade · documented model patterns. The free sign-in report covers the flags & model patterns.
The free lane
Drop the VIN and we'll connect you with a cash-offer path — it costs you nothing and there's no obligation.
