"Autocode" went to the masses

Since April 21, Yandex.Auto and Auto.Ru, which are the leaders in the search service for used cars, allow potential buyers not only to get acquainted with the criminal history of the car, but also to learn about the presence of a ban on registration actions.

The Autocode system is a peculiar and so far free Moscow analogue of the American CarFax, which is designed to save the buyer from the unpleasant opportunity to run into scammers and, having given money, get a stolen, salvaged or pledged car. The project was launched by the Department of Information Technologies (DIT) of Moscow and so far allows you to track the history of cars registered in Moscow and the Moscow region.

Upon request, the user is informed of the technical characteristics of the machine, the number of owners and periods of ownership, as well as the history of the accident. Also, using Autocode, you can get information about traffic violations committed by the initiator of the request, generate a receipt for payment of a fine, and much more. In the future, the database will begin to be replenished with information coming from auto insurers.

On sites selling used cars, the corresponding ads are marked with a marker “Verified by Autocode”. The "card" of such a car contains information about the results of the check for theft and the prohibition of registration actions. In particular, now such a check is available to users of Auto.Ru, which Yandex.Auto also joined the day before.

In total, since the launch of the service (in March last year), Autocode has processed 307 requests. The most popular brands: Ford, Volkswagen, Skoda, Audi, Opel, Mazda, Toyota.

However, at present, the most reliable insurance against potential problems when buying a used car is still a similar service that operates on the official website of the Russian traffic police. However, it lags far behind Autocode in terms of information content. However, after passing the check on the official database, you can be sure that the car is really legally clean. By “breaking through the VIN” on the traffic police website, you can find out if the vehicle is wanted, if there are restrictions on registration actions related to the execution of decisions of courts, customs authorities, social security authorities or the like. In addition, the car is immediately checked for fines on its owner.