Salvage Prophet vs AA Car History Check: what's actually different?

The AA's check is HPI-branded data at £14.99 a report or £29.99 for multiple. What it covers, what is free from us first, and when to pay for it.

DATA · 4 min read

The short answer

The AA's own vehicle history report, run through theaacarcheck.com, is £14.99 for a single check or £29.99 for a multicheck bundle, and it is HPI-branded data behind the AA name rather than an AA-specific database. Our free Vehicle History Checker gives you the official DVSA MOT history, mileage timeline and any Copart UK auction record we hold, at no cost, before you spend anything. If the free check leaves a gap, our own Full HPI Report at /hpi-check now covers the same write-off, finance and stolen-marker data directly.

Why the AA name carries weight here, and what is actually behind it

The AA is one of the UK's most recognised roadside and breakdown brands, and that trust extends naturally to a vehicle-check product carrying the same badge. Its car-check report is explicitly powered by HPI Limited, the same licensed data every provider in this space draws from: the MIAFTR insurance write-off register, finance company records and the DVLA/police stolen-vehicle marker. You are paying for the AA's presentation of that data and its own reported "72 other pieces of information", not a separate AA-only database.

What each AA tier covers

Both the £14.99 single check and the £29.99 multicheck (which works out to roughly £6 per vehicle if you use all of it) cover the same fields: outstanding finance, theft records, insurance write-offs, registration verification, mileage inconsistencies, previous owner count and DVLA scrapping status. Unlike our own checker, neither tier is built around the DVSA MOT history the way a UK buyer usually wants it, test by test with each advisory listed.

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What our free checker covers without paying either tier

We read directly from the DVSA MOT history API, so the full MOT and mileage timeline, every test, advisory and odometer reading, is free and instant with nothing to buy first. Add the VIN and we also check it against our own salvage auction records. For a straightforward UK-only car, the everyday questions, is the mileage consistent, is the MOT current, has it failed on anything serious, are answered by our free tools alone.

Where you now have a direct alternative to the AA's paid report

Confirmed insurance write-off category, outstanding finance and stolen markers sit in registers only licensed commercial providers can query. HPI, which powers the AA's report, is one; we are now one too. Our Full HPI Report, 5 credits per lookup with no subscription needed, pulls that same write-off, finance and stolen-marker data on top of the free MOT and mileage picture, in one report, on the same site you already ran the free check on.

The practical order to do it in

Run our free MOT, mileage and status check first, it costs nothing and takes seconds. If the car's paper trail is clean and it has stayed in the UK its whole life, that is often enough to bid with confidence. If real money is on the line, run our Full HPI Report for the confirmed write-off, finance and stolen data, or the AA's own report if you specifically want its multicheck bundle for several cars at once. Compare on what a report actually contains, not the badge on it, since the AA's is the same licensed HPI data under a different name.

Run our own Full HPI Report, 5 credits, no subscription

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