The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is the organisation of the British government responsible for maintaining a database of drivers in Great Britain and a database of vehicles for the entire United Kingdom. Its counterpart for drivers in Northern Ireland is the Driver and Vehicle Agency. The agency issues driving licences, organises collection of vehicle excise duty and sells personalised registrations.
Motor vehicle theft or car theft is the criminal act of stealing or attempting to steal a motor vehicle.
In the United States, a car dealership is a business that sells cars. A car dealership can either be a franchised dealership selling new and used cars, or a used car dealership, selling only used cars. In most cases, dealerships provide car maintenance and repair services as well as trade-in, leasing, and financing options for customers.
RAC Limited is a British automotive services company headquartered in Walsall, West Midlands. Its principal services are roadside assistance and general insurance, and its subsidiaries include RAC Motoring Services Ltd, RAC Financial Services Ltd and RAC Insurance Limited. It was a private club owned by its members until sold in 1999, eventually acquired in 2014 and 2015 by GIC Private Limited and CVC Capital Partners.
Vehicle Excise Duty is an annual tax levied as an excise duty, and which must be paid for most types of powered vehicles which are to be used or parked on public roads in the United Kingdom. Registered vehicles that are not being used or parked on public roads and which have been taxed since 31 January 1998 must be covered by a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN) to avoid VED. In 2016, VED generated approximately £6 billion for the Exchequer.
The MOT test is an annual test of vehicle safety, roadworthiness aspects and exhaust emissions required in the United Kingdom for most vehicles over three years old. In Northern Ireland the equivalent requirement applies after four years. The requirement does not apply to vehicles used only on various small islands with no convenient connection "to a road in any part of Great Britain"; no similar exemption is listed at the beginning of 2014 for Northern Ireland, which has a single inhabited island, Rathlin. The MOT test was first introduced in 1960 as a few basic tests of a vehicle and now covers twenty different parts or systems on or in the vehicle.
The Vehicle register in the United Kingdom is a database of motor vehicles. It is a legal requirement in the UK for most types of motor vehicle to be registered if they are to be used on the public road.
A used car, a pre-owned vehicle, or a secondhand car, is a vehicle that has previously had one or more retail owners. Used cars are sold through a variety of outlets, including franchise and independent car dealers, rental car companies, buy here pay here dealerships, leasing offices, auctions, and private party sales. Some car retailers offer "no-haggle" prices, "certified" used cars, and extended service plans or warranties.
A title loan is a type of secured loan where borrowers can use their vehicle title as collateral. Borrowers who get title loans must allow a lender to place a lien on their car title, and temporarily surrender the hard copy of their vehicle title, in exchange for a loan amount. When the loan is repaid, the lien is removed and the car title is returned to its owner. If the borrower defaults on their payments then the lender is liable to repossess the vehicle and sell it to repay the borrowers’ outstanding debt.
Odometer fraud, also referred to as "busting miles" or "clocking", is the illegal practice of rolling back odometers to make it appear that vehicles have lower mileage than they actually do. Odometer fraud occurs when the seller of a vehicle falsely represents the actual mileage of a vehicle to the buyer.
Vehicle leasing is the leasing of a motor vehicle for a fixed period of time at an agreed amount of money for the lease. It is commonly offered by dealers as an alternative to vehicle purchase but is widely used by businesses as a method of acquiring vehicles for business, without the usually needed cash outlay. The key difference in a lease is that after the primary term the vehicle has to either be returned to the leasing company or purchased for the residual value.
In the United States, the certificate of title for a vehicle is a legal form, establishing a person or business as the legal owner of a vehicle. Vehicle titles in the U.S. are commonly issued by the Secretary of State in the state the vehicle was purchased by the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).
Car finance refers to the various financial products which allow someone to acquire a car, including car loans and leases.
The Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS), colloquially known as "cash for clunkers", was a $3 billion U.S. federal scrappage program intended to provide economic incentives to U.S. residents to purchase a new, more fuel-efficient vehicle when trading in a less fuel-efficient vehicle. The program was promoted as a post-recession stimulus program to boost auto sales while putting more fuel-efficient vehicles on the roadways.
Solera Inc is an American company based in Texas which provides risk management and asset protection software and services to the automotive industry and property insurance marketplace. Solera also provides digital identity management services, as well as re-underwriting and data analytics for the automotive, property and casualty insurance industries. Solera is active in 88 countries across six continents.
In the used car market in the United States and Canada, buy here, pay here, often abbreviated as BHPH, refers to a method of running an automobile dealership in which dealers themselves extend credit to purchasers of automobiles. Typically, purchasers of cars at BHPH dealerships have poor credit history, and loans have high interest rates. BHPH can provide options for those unable to meet credit standards elsewhere.
Vehicle registration plates are the alphanumeric plates used to display the registration mark of a vehicle, and have existed in the United Kingdom since 1904. It is compulsory for motor vehicles used on public roads to display vehicle registration plates, with the exception of vehicles of the reigning monarch used on official business.
Cartell is an Irish vehicle checking company which commenced trading in 2006. It operates an online service to allow prospective vehicle purchasers to verify the history of a vehicle before purchasing. The checks available include details of finance problems, insurance write-offs, ownership history and whether a vehicle was formerly used as a taxi.
VIN cloning or car cloning is a practice of using a vehicle identification number (VIN) from a legally registered car to hide the identity of a stolen or salvaged vehicle. The procedure involves replacing the serial plate of a stolen or salvage repaired vehicle with a plate containing the number of a validly registered vehicle of similar make, model and year from another state, province or country.
My Car Check is a British vehicle checking company owned by CDL Vehicle Information Services, part of the CDL Group of companies. My Car Check website was launched in 2005 by Roger Powell, and as a platform where users can check the quality of a used vehicle being sold in the United Kingdom.
