Motorfile

iPhone · iPad

Motorfile

Everything about the car you own, from a number plate.

MO24 FLE 34 days to MOT A sample record. You type the plate once; everything on this page is read from the official DVSA history and worked out from there.
Coming to the App Store Free for three cars. No account. Nothing to sign into.

01 — How it works

One plate. The whole file.

You already own this information. It is just scattered across paperwork you cannot find.

Every MOT a car has ever had is on the official DVSA record, and so is the odometer reading taken at each one. Motorfile reads that record, keeps it, and works out what it means — what is due, what is wearing out, and whether the mileage story adds up.

  • The make, model, year, fuel, engine and colour arrive with the plate. You type nothing else.
  • Every advisory in plain English. “Nearside front tyre worn close to the legal limit” becomes front left tyre, with what it costs to put right.
  • Annual mileage, worked out from the real readings — not what you think you drive.
  • Tax you type once, and it maintains itself from then on.

02 — What it holds

The file you were meant to keep

  1. 01

    The MOT

    • Every test the car has ever taken, pass or fail, with the reasons.
    • What is due next, counted in days, not buried in a date.
    • Advisories carried forward, so you can see what was flagged last year and ignored.
  2. 02

    The mileage

    • Every recorded reading, plotted from the first test to the last.
    • Your real annual mileage, and what it is heading towards.
    • A reading that goes backwards is shown as exactly that, and not explained away.
  3. 03

    What is coming

    • MOT, tax and service, in the order they actually fall.
    • A service forecast built from how far you really drive.
    • Green while it is in date, ochre when it is close, rust when it has gone.
  4. 04

    Finance, if there is any

    • Your mileage allowance against the miles you have actually done.
    • What the overage will cost if nothing changes, and what you would have to drop to.
    • When the agreement ends, and what the balloon payment is.
  5. 05

    The paperwork

    • The V5C, the insurance, the receipts — photographed and kept with the car.
    • What the car has cost you, totalled.
    • A record to hand over when you sell it.

03 — Your data

The car’s file lives on your phone

There is no account to make. Your vehicles, your photographs, your documents and your costs are written to storage inside the app on your own device and stay there.

One thing does leave, and it is worth being exact about: the number plate you look up. It goes to our lookup service, which holds the government API credentials, and on to the DVSA. That is the only way to read an official record. It is not stored with your name, because we do not have your name.

Account required
None
Where your vehicles live
This device
Photos and documents
This device
What leaves the device
The plate
Analytics and trackers
None
Advertising
None
Your data sold on
Never

The full privacy policy is short, for the obvious reason.

04 — What it costs

Free for the car on your driveway

The MOT record, the mileage history and the advisories are free at any volume, so the free tier is not a trial that runs out. It is the actual product.

Free

£0

  • 3 vehicles
  • Every MOT, unlimited
  • Every mileage reading
  • Every advisory, translated
  • Tax — typed once

Full

£1.99 / month

  • 5 vehicles
  • Everything in Free
  • Documents and photos
  • Running costs and sale record
  • 3 checks a month on cars you don’t own

Trade

£10.99 / month

  • Unlimited vehicles
  • Everything in Full
  • Unlimited checks
  • For buying, not for keeping

£16.99 a year if you pay annually. There is also a £2.99 one-off check for a single car you are thinking of buying, with nothing to cancel. There is no lifetime option, and there will not be one: it would break even in under three years and people keep cars for longer than that.

This is not an HPI check, and we will never say it is

Outstanding finance, stolen markers and insurance write-off categories come from finance houses, the police and insurers. We do not have access to any of them, and no amount of MOT data substitutes for them. What the £2.99 buys is a MOT and mileage check — thorough on exactly that, and silent on the rest. If you are buying a car, get a proper provenance check as well.