You have a VIN from a lot page, a dealer listing or a broker's offer. Before the deposit, the shipping and the customs bill, find out what the United States or Canada already knows about that car. The preview is free.
Every European country re-registers an imported car from scratch. The German Fahrzeugbrief, the Dutch kenteken, the Polish dowód rejestracyjny and the Ukrainian техпаспорт all begin on the day of first local registration. The inspection that precedes them (§21 Vollgutachten, RDW keuring, badanie techniczne, RAR, HAK) checks conformity and roadworthiness. None of them reads the US title, the insurer's total-loss declaration or the auction record. A car written off in Texas, sold at Copart, repaired in Lithuania and registered in Germany arrives with paperwork that says nothing about any of it.
Carfax Europe's 2025 study counted about 303,000 used vehicles exported from the US to Europe in 2024, roughly 220,000 of them declared total losses by American insurers. That is the base rate. The only way to know which side of it a specific car is on is its VIN.
Every US state or Canadian provincial title, with salvage, rebuilt, flood, fire, hail, lemon and junk brands wherever they were applied, including brands that did not follow the car across a state line.
Copart, IAA and wholesale auction sales: date, damage codes, runs-and-drives status, sale price, title at sale, and the intake photographs taken before any repair.
Police-reported collisions, damage events and insurance total-loss declarations, with severity and location where recorded.
Every reading captured at titles, registrations, inspections, services and sales, in miles and in date order.
Rental, fleet, lease, taxi or police registration; active theft records; reported liens.
Open safety recalls, which some manufacturers require cleared before issuing the letter European homologation asks for.
A salvage title is not automatically a reason to walk away. American insurers total a car at a lower share of its value than German or Dutch insurers do, so some salvage cars are lightly damaged. The auction photos and damage codes tell you which. A rebuilt title means a state re-inspected the repair; it does not tell you the repair was good. A clean title on a car with an auction record is the case that deserves the most attention, because it means the salvage event was not carried onto the current document.
For homologation, the practical question is structural: France's UTAC and Spain's homologation firms reject structurally damaged and, in Spain's case, salvage-titled cars outright. Knowing the title before shipping avoids paying freight and duty on a car that cannot be registered.
Clean, salvage, rebuilt, flood, junk. Issued by a US state, invisible in every European registry.
How it is checkedCopart and IAAI intake photos, damage codes and sale price, from every sale the car went through, not only the current lot.
How it is checkedReadings at US titles, registrations and inspections in date order. A reading below an earlier one is a rollback.
How it is checkedYes. It is a US and Canadian history report. It works for a car on a Copart lot in Ohio, a car on a dealer forecourt in Florida, and a car that was imported to Poland three years ago, because in every case the record is the American one.
The lot number identifies one auction; the VIN identifies the car across every auction, title and registration. The VIN is printed on every lot page, so use it.
Yes. Enter the VIN and the preview shows how many title, brand, accident, odometer, theft and auction records exist, with no account. The full report is $19.99, one payment, no subscription.
Yes. Canadian provincial registrations, brands and, where the car crossed the border, its earlier US history are included.
Where the car passed through Copart, IAA or a wholesale auction and photographs were recorded, the report includes them. A car that was never auctioned has no auction section; the preview tells you before you pay.
Then nothing has been reported against that VIN in the sources searched, and you have not paid for anything. Very new cars and single-owner cars without incidents look like this. It is not proof that nothing happened, so still inspect the car.
Enter the VIN to see which US and Canadian records exist. The preview is free; the report is $19.99, once.