Car spec check by reg — free engine, CO2, tax & ULEZ

Everything in the free result comes from DVLA’s vehicle register and DVSA’s MOT history. Alongside the basics it shows the CO2 figure, the declared Euro standard and Real Driving Emissions step, the vehicle category, wheelplan and revenue weight, and the date the current V5C was issued. Two panels are worked out from those facts — the road tax regime and band, and how the vehicle measures up against the ULEZ standard — and both link to the official source so you can check our working.

The register holds no power output, torque, weight or dimensions, so we don’t show any. Older and imported vehicles often have no CO2 figure or Euro standard, and where something isn’t recorded the result says so rather than filling the gap.

The registration record is a fixed point to measure a seller’s description against. Most differences have an innocent explanation, but each deserves an answer before you pay.

• Engine size and fuel. An advert for a 2.0 diesel and a record showing a 1,598cc petrol are not the same car. A replacement engine of a different capacity must be reported to DVLA, with evidence such as a receipt showing the new engine number and capacity.
• Colour. A colour change also has to go on the V5C. A car whose paint doesn’t match its record has either out-of-date paperwork or a respray worth asking about — after accident repair, for instance.
• Year. A private registration can hide the age a standard plate would show, but it doesn’t change the year of manufacture or the first-registration date on the record.
• The logbook. DVLA issues a new V5C after every change of keeper or of the vehicle’s details, and each one carries its issue date. The V5C you are shown should match the “V5C last issued” date in the result; an older document has been replaced. A very recent date usually just means a recent sale — but if the seller has only just bought the car, it’s fair to ask why they are selling so soon.

One thing a matching record cannot rule out is a cloned car. A clone wears a copy of a genuine car’s registration, usually one of the same make, model and colour, so the record looks right — that is the point of cloning. The check that catches it is physical: the vehicle identification number (VIN) on the car itself must match the one on the V5C, and the V5C should name the person and address you are buying from. MOT history that doesn’t fit the car in front of you — tests in a pattern or at mileages that make no sense for it — is another reason to stop and ask.

Vehicle excise duty (road tax) for a car depends first on when it was registered, and the check works out which of three regimes applies:

• Registered before 1 March 2001: taxed on engine size, with one rate up to 1,549cc and a higher one above it.
• 1 March 2001 to 31 March 2017: taxed on CO2 emissions, in thirteen bands from A (up to 100 g/km) to M (over 255 g/km). The CO2 figure on the record decides the band for the life of the car.
• From 1 April 2017: the first payment, made when the car was new, is based on CO2. After that every car pays the same standard rate (£200 a year in 2026-27), whatever its fuel. Cars with a list price over £40,000 — or over £50,000 for an electric car registered from 1 April 2025 — pay an extra £440 a year for five years from their second tax payment.

The list price isn’t on the registration record, so we can’t always tell whether that supplement applies. Where DVLA holds an end date for it (the “additional rate of tax”), the result shows it. Electric cars have paid road tax since 1 April 2025: those registered between March 2001 and March 2017 sit in band A, later ones pay the standard rate. Vans have their own flat rate, and vehicles built more than 40 years ago can apply for the historic vehicle tax class, which is exempt. All the current figures are in the vehicle tax rate tables on gov.uk.

London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone covers almost all of Greater London and runs 24 hours a day, every day except Christmas Day. A car, van, motorcycle or minibus that doesn’t meet its emissions standard pays a daily charge (£12.50 when we checked in October 2026). The standard is Euro 4 for petrol vehicles, Euro 6 for diesels and Euro 3 for motorcycles. ULEZ is separate from the central London Congestion Charge.

TfL enforces the standard on the emissions a vehicle was declared to meet, not on its age. Where DVLA’s record carries a Euro standard, the check compares it directly. Where it doesn’t, we use TfL’s own guidance: petrol cars that meet the standard are generally those first registered as new after 2005 (some from 2001 do), diesel cars generally those registered after September 2015, petrol vans from January 2006 and diesel vans from September 2016. Fully electric vehicles produce no tailpipe emissions. A hybrid is judged on its petrol or diesel engine. Vehicles built before 1 January 1973 are exempt. That is guidance, not a ruling — the TfL vehicle checker is the final word, and we link it with every result.

Clean Air Zones in other English cities use the same Euro 4 petrol and Euro 6 diesel minimum, but not every zone charges every vehicle. Only Birmingham and Bristol charge private cars; Bath, Bradford, Sheffield and Tyneside charge vans and minibuses but not cars; Portsmouth charges neither. Scotland’s Low Emission Zones in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow use the same standards but work differently: a vehicle that doesn’t meet them gets a penalty charge, and there is no way to pay in advance. Check English zones on gov.uk and Scottish ones on mygov.scot.

Euro standards are limits on the air pollutants an engine may emit — mainly nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) — tightened in steps from Euro 1 in the early 1990s to Euro 6. Each step applied to new models first and then to every new vehicle sold: Euro 4 became mandatory for new cars in 2005, and Euro 6 in September 2015 for cars and light vans.

Euro 6 itself has several versions. The later ones, Euro 6d-TEMP and Euro 6d, added Real Driving Emissions (RDE) testing on the road rather than only in a laboratory. That matters for a newer diesel: one that meets the stricter RDE2 step paid a lower first-year road tax rate. DVLA records the standard as the dealer declared it, often with letters after the number (“EURO 6 AD”) identifying the exact version it was approved to. If the record has no Euro standard, the manufacturer or the car’s certificate of conformity can confirm it.

Revenue weight is the vehicle’s maximum permitted weight with its load, also called its gross vehicle weight. On a car it rarely matters. On a van it decides a surprising amount. Light goods vehicles up to 3,500kg pay the van rate of road tax, and heavier ones are taxed differently. A petrol or diesel van between 3,000kg and 3,500kg design gross weight takes a class 7 MOT rather than class 4. A standard car licence (category B, passed on or after 1 January 1997) covers petrol, diesel and hybrid vehicles up to 3,500kg maximum authorised mass, or 4,250kg if the vehicle is fully electric or hydrogen. And ULEZ covers vans up to 3.5 tonnes, with heavier vehicles falling under London’s Low Emission Zone instead.

Wheelplan is DVLA’s description of the axle layout — “2 axle rigid body” for most cars and vans. Changing it, or the body type (converting a van into a camper, say), has to be reported to DVLA. A wheelplan or category that doesn’t fit what you are looking at is worth asking about, and a plated weight that differs from the advert can change the tax, the MOT and who is allowed to drive it.

• Imported vehicles. DVLA records the month a vehicle was first registered anywhere and, separately, when it was first registered in the UK. When the UK date is later, the result shows both: the car was almost certainly registered abroad first. Imports are often missing a CO2 figure or Euro standard, which makes the road tax and ULEZ panels less certain.
• Marked for export. When a keeper tells DVLA a vehicle has left the UK permanently, its record is marked as exported. The result flags it only when DVLA says so. A car being sold to you in the UK that is marked for export needs explaining, and DVLA is the place to confirm its status.
• No CO2 figure on an older car. Expected for anything registered before March 2001, which is taxed on engine size and has no CO2 band.
• Q registrations. DVLA issues a Q plate when a vehicle’s age or identity is in doubt — a kit car, for example, or a rebuild from parts that can’t be identified. Any earlier registration becomes invalid.

The free check returns what the government holds about the vehicle, which is the same for every example of the model — and that is exactly its limit. It cannot tell you what this particular car was ordered with. The manufacturer’s build sheet can, because it is decoded against the chassis rather than the model.

What’s on it

The manufacturer’s own record of how one chassis left the production line. This is a real example, from a 2022 Audi A4 40 TDI quattro:

Paint

Daytona grey pearl effect (6Y)

Interior trim

Soul (black) (EI)

Gearbox

7-speed automatic, quattro

Factory options

182 items, by code and description

Each option comes with its manufacturer code, so it can be matched against a brochure, a dealer’s price list or a seller’s advert line by line. People use it to write an advert from the factory record rather than from memory, to check an options pack really was fitted before agreeing a price, and to order the right paint or trim part.

The colour by name, the code where it was recorded

On cars a few years old the paint code is almost always present. On older ones it is frequently a colour name and no code, because that is all the manufacturer stored. We show what was recorded and never fill a gap with a guess. The code is usually also printed on a sticker or plate on the car itself — often in a door shut, under the bonnet or in the boot — which is worth checking against the build sheet before ordering paint. More on that in our guide to finding a paint code by reg.

Price

The build sheet costs £3.99 on its own, or £2.99 when you add it to a service history check — tick the build sheet option before you pay. Either way the payment is only taken once a build sheet arrives. It isn’t offered for Porsche, Renault, Nissan or Mazda, where the manufacturer returns too little to be worth paying for.

It is not a valuation, not a finance or write-off check, and not the service history — those are separate. Our guides explain where each record is held: the outstanding finance check, the stolen car check and the write-off check. This covers how the car was built and how it is registered, not what has happened to it since. For that, see the free MOT history check and the service history check by registration. Knowing the exact engine also lets you look up the service schedule for that engine.