Generally speaking, running a VIN lookup is unnecessary if you’re buying a brand-new car. Because a VIN lookup provides information about the history of a vehicle, and a new car typically doesn’t have much of it. But in some situations, conducting a VIN lookup on new cars can still prove beneficial. In this post, we’ll discuss what’s the point of looking up the VIN of a new car and how to do it.

What information is worth noting when doing a new car VIN lookup?

Although a new car may have fewer records compared to a used car, there is some useful information that’s worth noting in a full VIN lookup report of a new car:

• Sale listings & last reported mileage
  It shows the vehicle’s past listings for sale, such as dates, locations, and selling prices that can help you analyze its pricing trend and check if you’ve got a competitive price. You may find the last reported mileage information there.
  
• MSRP & invoice prices
  It shows the manufacturer’s suggested retail price and the invoice price, and it gives you a rough concept of what’s the market price of the car.
  
• Warranty
  It includes information about the warranty status, duration, and components covered by the warranty.
  
• Vehicle specifications
  It gives you detailed vehicle specifications including engine specs, options, exterior & interior installations, and more. That will help you know more about the car.
  

How to perform a new car VIN lookup?

Several online platforms allow you to check for the vehicle history by its VIN. Listed below are some of our top picks that have been tested by us. 

1. BeenVerified (paid, full report)

BeenVerified is a recognized vehicle information check service that provides access to multiple data sources like state-level government agencies and auto industry partners. And it’s powered by Bumper, an NMVTIS-approved vehicle history data provider. It’s one of the best choices to help you learn more about a car, including its sale listings, market prices, recalls, warranty status, and more. To use the service:

1. Go to the BeenVerified vehicle lookup page.
2. Enter the VIN and click Search.
   
3. Wait as BeenVerified runs the search and compiles a report.
4. On the report page, you’ll see a navigation bar on the left to help you easily access the section that you’re interested in. For example, the Vehicle Specs section.
   
5. Typically, new cars don’t come with much history information. You can focus your attention on things like sale listings, prices, and specs, as we mentioned. Note that BeenVerified is a subscription-based service and you’ll need to purchase a membership plan to view the report.

2. EpicVIN (paid, full report)

EpicVIN is another vehicle history check service that we like, and it is also an NMVTIS data provider. It has got a high score of 4.1 stars at Trustpilot.com, the trusted customer review platform, better than many other competitors. It also has access to multiple data sources including government authorities, repair shops, and insurance companies. 

1. Navigate to EpicVIN.
2. Enter the VIN and click on the search button.
   
3. Then EpicVIN will start the search process and generate a report. It will give you some basic preliminary information such as the engine size and last odometer reading, but you’ll need to purchase a plan to view the full report (including the Inspection history).
   

What do we like about EpicVIN?
EpicVIN is a paid service. But it will offer you some free preliminary information like the engine size, last odometer reading, and manufacturing country of the vehicle, before your purchase.

3. NICB (free, theft & salvage records)

NICB VINCheck is a free VIN lookup tool provided by the National Insurance Crime Bureau and is accessible to everyone. It gives you a vehicle’s theft and salvage records quickly and costs no money.

4. NHTSA (free, recall records)

NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) offers a free VIN lookup service to help you learn whether a particular vehicle has any unrepaired safety recalls.

5. Decode This

If you only need to know the basic info about your car engine, you can try Decode This, a free online tool. Enter a VIN, then it will pull out the basic engine & vehicle specs related to it.

That’s all we have to offer on how to use both paid and free services to look up the VIN of a new car. Note that there are no VIN lookup tools that can guarantee 100% accuracy. You should take them as a supplementary method as you check for the history of a vehicle.