Car spec check — free, by registration

Yes. Enter a registration and you get the vehicle's registered specification — make, model, engine size, fuel, colour, year, tax and MOT status — free, with no account. The optional upgrade is the factory build sheet, which shows the extras that particular car was ordered with.

Enter the registration in the free check on this page. It returns the registered specification from DVLA and DVSA in a few seconds. For the options that individual car was ordered with — packs, wheels, audio, paint — you need the manufacturer's factory build sheet, which is the optional upgrade shown under your result.

It is the manufacturer's own record of how one specific chassis was built: the paint and trim codes, the gearbox, the wheels and every option added on the production line when the car was ordered. It is tied to the VIN, which is why it describes that exact car rather than the model in general.

Standard equipment is what every example of that model comes with — it tells you nothing unique about an individual car. Factory-fitted options are the extras chosen when it was ordered: a panoramic roof, upgraded wheels, a technology pack, premium audio, metallic paint. Those are what the build sheet lists, and they are what separates a base car from a loaded one.

Usually, on a car a few years old. Every build sheet names the factory colour; the code itself is recorded on most recent cars but is often missing on older ones, where you get the manufacturer's colour name instead. We show exactly what was recorded and never invent a code — a wrong one costs somebody a respray.

Yes — several sites give paint codes away because they sell paint, and if a code is genuinely all you need, use them. The build sheet adds the rest of the build for that one chassis: the trim, the gearbox, the wheels and every factory option, from the manufacturer's own record.

Most of them. It does not work on Porsche, Renault, Nissan or Mazda — those manufacturers either return nothing or return too little to be worth paying for — so we don't offer it on those and you are never charged for one.

£3.99 on its own, or £2.99 when you add it to a service history check. The standard spec check is always free.

You are not charged. The payment is authorised when you order and only taken once a build sheet actually arrives — if the manufacturer holds nothing, the authorisation is released and nothing reaches your statement.

No. A spec check covers how the car was built, not what has happened to it since. Service history is a separate check against manufacturer dealer records, and finance, stolen and write-off markers come from a provenance (HPI-style) check.

No. The build record is licensed manufacturer data, so it goes on your own report rather than onto a public page for that registration.