Cappy Posted May 14, 2015 Report Share Posted May 14, 2015 (edited) Recently, AutoCheck (www.autocheck.com) has redesigned their website to make it more user-friendly. One of the new features on that site is the ability to find the history of a vehicle by entering its license plate. By doing so, you'll be able to see the basic information, including the VIN, without having to pay a penny. I believe this method is useful when gathering VINs to add to the wiki in the event that you have the bus number and its license plate, but you're physically unable to obtain its VIN. I've attached two examples: the first one in gathering the VIN of Nassau Inter-County Express' Orion V CNG #1007 (originally Foothill Transit F1227) and the other in gathering the VIN of WestCAT's Gillig BRT #404. There are a few things that need to be mentioned in using this method: The vehicle histories don't include a build date of a bus. The license plate must be the current plate on the bus. If you entered the license plate and selected the correct state/US territory and you get the "We're sorry: We can't find that car" result, either the plate was replaced by a newer plate, was built before 1981 (they had serials before VINs came into use), or AutoCheck hasn't received the title information with that plate yet. If it's the last one, check again at a later time. You can only use the license plate search from buses that are/were registered in the 50 US states, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The Guam and the US Virgin Islands selections are also listed, but you can't license plate search the buses registered in those US territories as I've found out that they're "exported," making those aforementioned selections useless. It's also not possible to license plate search the buses registered in Canada yet. Although, AutoCheck does have vehicle histories from some of the buses up there, so it's possible that they may add the acronyms of the provinces and its territories to the list in the future... There are some transit agencies that are somehow aware of their buses being searched online and will make some sort of change so that the license plates of their buses can't be searched on AutoCheck again, unless these transit agencies reregister their existing buses for new plates. The best ways to get around this is to collect more than half of the license plates of a particular bus series and run those plates and everything between them during the night. So far, here's the following transit agencies that will remove the license plate info and is relayed to AutoCheck: Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority, Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority, Central Florida Regional Transit Authority (LYNX), Chicago Transit Authority, Connect Transit, Eau Claire Transit, Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, Maryland Transit Administration, Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, Milwaukee County Transit System, Montachusett Regional Transit Authority, Northern Arizona Intergovernmental Public Transportation Authority (Mountain Line), Sangamon Mass Transit District, Trimet, VIA Metropolitan Transit, Westchester County Bee-Line System. Edited May 11, 2017 by Cappy Added more info and a new link found by DD 6V92TA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Detroit Diesel 6V92TA Posted May 11, 2017 Report Share Posted May 11, 2017 On 5/13/2015 at 9:39 PM, Cappy said: Recently, AutoCheck (www.autocheck.com) has redesigned their website to make it more user-friendly. One of the new features on that site is the ability to find the history of a vehicle by entering its license plate. By doing so, you'll be able to see the basic information, including the VIN, without having to pay a penny. I believe this method is useful when gathering VINs to add to the wiki in the event that you have the bus number and its license plate, but you're physically unable to obtain its VIN. I've attached two examples: the first one in gathering the VIN of Nassau Inter-County Express' Orion V CNG #1007 (originally Foothill Transit F1227) and the other in gathering the VIN of WestCAT's Gillig BRT #404 (this one hasn't been added to the wiki at the time of this post). There are a few things that need to be mentioned in using this method: The vehicle histories don't include a build date of a bus. The license plate must be the current plate on the bus. If you entered the license plate and selected the correct state/US territory and you get the "We're sorry: We can't find that car" result, either the plate was replaced by a newer plate, was built before 1981 (they had serials before VINs came into use), or AutoCheck hasn't received the title information with that plate yet. If it's the latter, check again at a later time. You can only enter the license plates from buses that are/were registered in the 50 states, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the US Virgin Islands. It's not possible for buses registered in Canada yet. Although, AutoCheck does have vehicle histories from some of the buses up there, so it's possible that they may add the acronyms of the provinces and its territories to the list in the future. I've been using this site to the fullest and acquired quite a few VINs over the past 2 years. However I've noticed since 2016, they've been trying not to display the VINs when using the search feature. I don't know if you've ran into this problem yet, but my first solution around it was to use an old browser. That worked perfectly until this month. Now the only way around it is to use this link (http://www.autocheck.com/vehiclehistory/autocheck/en/AutoCheck-vehicle-history-reports/c/VHRs#showSearchVin) instead of just going straight to autocheck.com. Works on modern browsers too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cappy Posted May 11, 2017 Author Report Share Posted May 11, 2017 I've noticed the change since last night, but originally thought it was only the buses I was searching that have no vehicle histories. Now that I've tried a license plate search on a bus that does have vehicle histories, you're right. The link you've provided works and I'll post it in the first post of this thread. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Detroit Diesel 6V92TA Posted November 5, 2017 Report Share Posted November 5, 2017 Autocheck is getting picky again with displaying VINs even with the new link I listed, especially if you search by license plate. Again, older browsers seem to not have this issue as much as modern ones, but I sometimes have to click back and forth between these links: http://www.autocheck.com/vehiclehistory/autocheck/en/AutoCheck-vehicle-history-reports/c/VHRs#showSearchVin http://www.autocheck.com/vehiclehistory/autocheck/en/subscription-benefits (#showSearchVin) Sometimes adding or removing "#showSearchVin" will make the VIN pop up, but other times it doesn't. If you have an old browser laying around like IE8 or Safari 4, I'd suggest using that over Google Chrome for autochekck. -------------------------- Also something to note, watch out for false check numbers listed on autocheck for 1982-1984 Gillig Phantom VINs. I've noticed in some cases, VINs that I put on there that were taken directly from build plates do not work, but then it will work if you put in the wrong check number (even though it'll say 0 records). For example 15GCD0812E1080786 from SamTrans 852: . It may be a little hard to tell in that pic from my friend, but I can clearly see a "2" in the check number position. However autocheck does not have that in their system, instead they have it as "15GCD081XE1080786" with zero records. This isn't the case for all 1982-1984 Phantom VINs, but it is for some. I've been adding a lot of Gillig VINs lately and I do use autocheck to confirm the accuracy of check numbers, but I only do so with 1985 and newer Phantoms, also if it has 0 records I leave the check number space empty between the prefix & serial when adding to the wiki until I can get some confirmation elsewhere. @Dave Mackey @Cappy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Detroit Diesel 6V92TA Posted March 17, 2018 Report Share Posted March 17, 2018 Update: Using this link " http://www.autocheck.com/vehiclehistory/autocheck/en/AutoCheck-vehicle-history-reports/c/VHRs#showSearchVin " will display the license plate result without the VIN. However delete " #showSearchVin " and refresh the page. It will show the VIN every time. =============== Here's a great alternative site that does the same thing as autocheck. I just started using it a couple of nights ago and found out they have A LOT of plates/VIN's that autocheck doesn't have in their system. I highly recommend using this site side by side with autocheck or if a plate does not work. So far California plates have worked the best compared to others, but there are options for all 50 states; (you can select). CA example: https://www.vehiclehistory.com/licence-plate-search/free-licence-plate-search-california.php @GojiMet86 @Cappy 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GojiMet86 Posted March 26, 2018 Report Share Posted March 26, 2018 On 3/17/2018 at 4:53 PM, Detroit Diesel 6V92TA said: Here's a great alternative site that does the same thing as autocheck. I just started using it a couple of nights ago and found out they have A LOT of plates/VIN's that autocheck doesn't have in their system. I highly recommend using this site side by side with autocheck or if a plate does not work. So far California plates have worked the best compared to others, but there are options for all 50 states; (you can select). CA example: https://www.vehiclehistory.com/licence-plate-search/free-licence-plate-search-california.php Using it at this moment... Denver RTD Gillig Phantoms #8248 and #8254 became Golden Touch #4001 and #4002. Hertz 15GGD2219X1070145 and 15GGD2217W1070093 became Golden Touch #9001 and #9003. Hertz 15GGB2210X1071240 to MCIZ #315. Utah UTA #9266, #9261, and Des Moines ARTA #337 became Golden Touch #7000, #7006, and #7007. Avon-Beaver Creek #843 to Gray Line double-decker #852, Denver RTD #8207,#8239, #8229, #8026 to Gray Line #820, #830, #862, #865 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
140 Southshore Posted April 21, 2018 Report Share Posted April 21, 2018 Here's something else to take note of: Michigan municipal plates ("X") will not work when entered on either site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Detroit Diesel 6V92TA Posted May 12, 2018 Report Share Posted May 12, 2018 On 4/21/2018 at 11:49 AM, 160 Downriver said: Here's something else to take note of: Michigan municipal plates ("X") will not work when entered on either site. It could be because you're adding "X." On old CA Exempt plates, they sport "E" in an octagon in front of the plate number. If you add that "E" in auto check & vehicle history, it will not work, but if you type in the plate without the "E" it will work (depending on if the plate is in their system). Example: 098765 vs. E098765 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKWROM Posted June 12, 2018 Report Share Posted June 12, 2018 Is it safe to say that a vehicle’s VIN that is not showing up on any vehicle history site indicates that the vehicle is scrapped? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Detroit Diesel 6V92TA Posted October 8, 2018 Report Share Posted October 8, 2018 On 6/11/2018 at 10:16 PM, SKWROM said: Is it safe to say that a vehicle’s VIN that is not showing up on any vehicle history site indicates that the vehicle is scrapped? No. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCTD 2039 Posted February 14, 2019 Report Share Posted February 14, 2019 Lately I've been trying to get VINs for OCTA's 2007 New Flyer C40LFRs by putting the license plate numbers using this site (https://www.vehiclehistory.com/licence-plate-search/free-licence-plate-search-california.php ) but it fails, leading me into this error page because that site just had been updated, effectively making bus VINs impossible and futile to get right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GojiMet86 Posted February 23, 2019 Report Share Posted February 23, 2019 Seems to have returned to normal: https://www.vehiclehistory.com/license-plate-search/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Detroit Diesel 6V92TA Posted February 23, 2019 Report Share Posted February 23, 2019 18 hours ago, GojiMet86 said: Seems to have returned to normal: https://www.vehiclehistory.com/license-plate-search/ Thank you for the update. I was quite disappointed when their plate search feature stopped working all together. I even emailed them about the site troubles, but never heard back. I think they were just redesigning their site since the link is a little different and the site look is totally different now. Also I noticed their plate search feature was glitching before the redesign of the site and I had to refresh the page many times to get the correct VIN displayed. It kept displaying previous search results. ========================================================================== During the time their site was down, someone sent me another great website, it is not a plate search supplement, but it is another decent tool for finding VINs and plates: https://ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/SMS/Home/ You can search a number of companies/agencies by name or USDOT and a list of inspected vehicles are shown once you scroll down and click on the Complete SMS Profile. I tried it with a few school districts, smaller companies, rental car shuttle companies and a couple of larger transit agencies. I found quite a few VINs & plates that autocheck, vehiclehistory and carfax did not have or that I normally would not have been able find at all. Also, autocheck, vehiclehistory and carfax sometimes have invalid VINs in their systems. CA Plate 82985Y1 gives you 15GCD2013V1088885. However I found out this was an invalid VIN and the real VIN was 15GCD2013V1088851. It can be seen here: https://ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/SMS/Carrier/2766763/CompleteProfile.aspx https://ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/SMS/Event/Inspection/63850135.aspx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GojiMet86 Posted July 31, 2019 Report Share Posted July 31, 2019 It looks like AutoCheck has decided to stop showing the VINs. FaxVIN (https://www.faxvin.com/license-plate-lookup) seems to be a different alternative. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Detroit Diesel 6V92TA Posted August 3, 2019 Report Share Posted August 3, 2019 On 7/31/2019 at 9:22 AM, GojiMet86 said: It looks like AutoCheck has decided to stop showing the VINs. FaxVIN (https://www.faxvin.com/license-plate-lookup) seems to be a different alternative. Another one: https://www.usacarrecord.com ================================================= Also Vehicle History from January to June of this year was displaying the NMVTIS reports with each VIN check/plate check for free. The info I found on there for bus dispositions was absolutely AMAZING and I spent many days and nights running reports/writing down the disposition info. Sadly they took this feature down in June, but it sounds like it may come back eventually. Let me know if you find other sites that have useful reports at no cost. Illinois Title Status Inquiry is good for checking to see if buses are scrapped or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomasw Posted August 11, 2019 Report Share Posted August 11, 2019 Does anyone know of a website that does free Canadian license plate and vin lookups? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Transit Spotlight Posted August 17, 2019 Report Share Posted August 17, 2019 On 8/11/2019 at 9:31 AM, Thomasw said: Does anyone know of a website that does free Canadian license plate and vin lookups? Unfortunately, not Canadian license plates. VINs are universal so if you search "vin reversal search" or something like that you should find plenty of sites that you can use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orion6025 Posted October 14, 2019 Report Share Posted October 14, 2019 On 8/3/2019 at 4:49 AM, Detroit Diesel 6V92TA said: Another one: https://www.usacarrecord.com It seems they got rid of the license plate lookup option very recently. Huge shame since they were much more reliable than faxvin and didn't have that annoying lookup limit... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Detroit Diesel 6V92TA Posted October 14, 2019 Report Share Posted October 14, 2019 1 hour ago, Orion6025 said: It seems they got rid of the license plate lookup option very recently. Huge shame since they were much more reliable than faxvin and didn't have that annoying lookup limit... I noticed this a couple days ago and I agree it is a huge shame. Faxvin is missing a lot of plates that Usacarrecord had. However, Vehiclehistory still has the plate check feature and it seems to be working fine again. I think Usacarrecord & Vehiclehistory were both the top notch options for plate checking. https://www.vehiclehistory.com/license-plate-search 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Detroit Diesel 6V92TA Posted October 26, 2019 Report Share Posted October 26, 2019 https://www.usacarrecord.com/ is back as of today. Also this can be an extremely useful tool for finding VINs in California only. I've gotten it to work with 1980's license plates. https://www.dmv.ca.gov/wasapp/FeeCalculatorWeb/usedVehicleForm.do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GojiMet86 Posted January 1, 2020 Report Share Posted January 1, 2020 So I used https://www.vehiclehistory.com/ right now, and it has done something I have not seen before. It now has a photo of the vehicle. Maybe not all have them, but this is pretty interesting. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomasw Posted January 2, 2020 Report Share Posted January 2, 2020 3 hours ago, GojiMet86 said: So I used https://www.vehiclehistory.com/ right now, and it has done something I have not seen before. It now has a photo of the vehicle. Maybe not all have them, but this is pretty interesting. Is it a computer generated image or a real image of the vehicle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GojiMet86 Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 22 hours ago, Thomasw said: Is it a computer generated image or a real image of the vehicle It was a real image of the cutaway. It doesn't work for all vehicles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GojiMet86 Posted January 20, 2020 Report Share Posted January 20, 2020 Found this other website: https://vincheck.info/free-license-plate-lookup/ I found some VINs that are still not available on vehiclehistory.com. EDIT: There's a limit to free look-ups. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Detroit Diesel 6V92TA Posted July 7, 2020 Report Share Posted July 7, 2020 On 1/19/2020 at 9:40 PM, GojiMet86 said: Found this other website: https://vincheck.info/free-license-plate-lookup/ I found some VINs that are still not available on vehiclehistory.com. EDIT: There's a limit to free look-ups. The only way around this limit is to use a different IP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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