I myself always carry out my own background checks, anyway, regardless of whatever a used car dealer may or may not choose to show me.

Interestingly enough, my niece purchased a quite expensive used car last year from a fairly large dealership. Whilst the dealers online checks showed there were no issues whatsoever, when I carried out an independent check (HPI) an issue came up indicating that there was a loan connected to the vehicle! As it happened this loan was connected with the way in which this particular dealership financed the purchase of their used cars and, after my niece spoke to the company who had made the loan, all worked out OK.

But it does just go to show that it's always best to check.

Caveat Emptor! - Let the Buyer Beware!

You don't need a mileage check, the online MoT history will give you that back to about 2007.

On the assumption a reputable dealer is not going to sell a stolen car, then the things i would want to check would be service history for the car's first 3 years-then MOT history for failures and advisables plus any existing ad hoc maintenance receipts.

The problem with the latter is that dealers tend to rip up anything that doesn't look model "official" ,leaving a prospective buyer with only an oily stamped service booklet. If that isn't available and no computer records existed for the first 3 years of servicing-I would walk away.

As has been pointed out though--the public MOT history site is brilliant.

But on the windscreen of all their cars is an optional extra of a background check for £99 +vat.

They should be ridiculed. They are selling a car without carrying out appropriate checks.