Kijiji is where a large share of private car sales in Canada start. Before you meet, get the VIN and see what is on record: accidents, owners, odometer readings, title brands and photos. The preview is free.
Each registration on record, the province it sat in and how long it stayed there.
Reported collisions and damage records, including insurance write-offs where they were reported.
Readings captured over time, so a rollback or an implausible jump shows up as a break in the sequence.
Salvage, rebuilt, flood and other brands, including brands applied in another province or a US state before the car moved.
Listing and auction photos previously published for the VIN, to compare with the ones in the ad.
For cars brought up from the United States, the American title, accident and auction history that provincial records never show.
Ask for the VIN before you meet. If you cannot meet yet, Kijiji suggests a video call showing the VIN, plate and odometer.
Run it here, then search the provincial registry for liens: the PPR in most provinces, the RDPRM in Quebec, or a PPSA search through ServiceOntario.
In Ontario, ask for the Used Vehicle Information Package the seller is required to provide.
Check that the name on the ownership matches the seller’s ID, and ask exactly when they bought the car.
CARFAX Canada reported that 42% of the lien checks run through its service in 2024 found money still owed on the vehicle. In Canada a lien follows the car, not the seller.
CBC reported on a Kijiji buyer near Montreal left owing about $30,000 on a car sold by a dealer posing as a private seller. A very short ownership in the record is the clue.
A lender can take up to 15 days to register a lien, so ask exactly when the seller bought the car, and be careful with very recent purchases.
Kijiji advises searching a listing’s photos and VIN online, because scammers reuse them across cities. Photos on record for the VIN help confirm the car is the one in the ad.
The report covers Canadian vehicles: ownership, accidents, odometer readings, service records, title brands and, for cars brought up from the US, their American history. It does not search provincial lien registries, and in Canada only those registries are authoritative for liens, so run the registry search before you pay. Our loan and lien records come from North American title data.
See a full sample reportGet the VIN, run it here, search your provincial lien registry, and in Ontario ask for the UVIP. Then match the VIN on the car to the ownership papers and have a mechanic inspect it.
Not reliably, and you should not depend on it for that. Liens in Canada are registered provincially and only the provincial registry is authoritative. The lien check page lists each province’s registry.
You lose the protections a licensed dealer sale carries. A very short ownership in the record, several cars for sale by the same person, or reluctance to show ID are the signs. Provincial regulators such as OMVIC in Ontario and AMVIC in Alberta take complaints.
No. Canadian provinces do not release plate-to-vehicle records to the public. Ask the seller for the VIN.
Yes, with no account. It shows which records exist for the VIN before you decide whether to buy the report.
Enter the VIN to see which records exist. The preview is free.