CTOS Digital Berhad might be more familiar to you as a credit reporting agency, but the firm has now just launched a new service that will let Malaysians check the history of any used vehicle that they may be thinking of buying. Dubbed as the CTOS Vehicle Check online platform, it is being run by its subsidiary CTOS IDS Sdn Bhd in collaboration with OTOFACTS, a Malaysian online automotive database.
Right now, CTOS Vehicle Check will let you look up the history on any used or reconditioned vehicle that’s been registered in Malaysia, Japan or the United Kingdom. All you have to do is head over to the CTOS Vehicle Check website, enter the country of the vehicle in question and the vehicle identification number and it’ll provide you with details such as:
- accident history
- vehicle mileage
- whether its been stolen before
- ownership history
- whether its been part of a recall before
- auction records
- airbag deployment history (for Japanese cars only)
- service and maintenance records
- car registration details
To find the vehicle identification number on a vehicle, you’ll need to look at places such as the car registration label, or the compliance plate in the engine bay, the passenger side windshield or on one of the door posts. You can also look for the vehicle identification number on either the vehicle title and registration certificate or the insurance card of the vehicle. The vehicle identification number will be a string of 17-characters, comprising of both numbers and capital letters.
“The challenge with buying a used car is that buyers more often than not have little to no access to verify the background information of the car.
By providing easy and immediate access to extensive data through CTOS Vehicle Check, we can help reduce fraud and improve transparency in the sale and purchase of used vehicles in Malaysia, giving consumers the peace of mind with a used car report they can trust,” – Eric Hamburger, CTOS Digital Berhad Group CEO
The used car market is projected to grow by up to 12% this year alone, with an estimated 480,000 used vehicles sold this year compared to 428,000 in 2021. If you’re planning on using CTOS Vehicle Check yourself, you can do so by heading over to its website here.