For a long time, the only sources for a vehicle history report in the United States were CARFAX and AutoCheck, each with their own independent databases. The creation of the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS) — a nationwide government database that state DMVs, insurance companies, and salvage yards are required by law to report into — has been a great step forward for improving the accessibility of vehicle history overall.

Today, in addition to two traditional providers offering reports based on their own database, there are a handful of approved vehicle history providers offering reports primarily based on the NMVTIS database. At VinAudit, we often catch issues other sources miss because VinAudit integrates data from both the NMVTIS database and our own independent database of hundreds of millions of records. But at the same time, we certainly don’t know everything, and sometimes it helps to get another perspective!