Free your first car check
Is this car listing dodgy?
Screenshot any used-car ad — Marketplace, Gumtree, carsales — and RegoSnap reads it, checks it, and tells you exactly what to ask the seller before you hand over money.
Check a listing
no account · no cardUp to six screenshots of the one car. Works in this browser — nothing to install.
What comes back
One verdict, and every point shows its working
Nothing is asserted without the evidence beside it — the seller's own words, or the line on your certificate it came from. Here is a check from start to finish.
Two things to sort out before you pay
Nothing here says walk away — but don't send money until both are answered.
268,400 km · $18,900
Marketplace · Logan, QLD
A deposit before you've seen the car is the most common way private-sale money disappears. Don't pay anything until you've stood next to it.
“Happy to hold it for whoever puts down $500 first, I've got a lot of interest.”
The dash photo and the details box are 100,000 km apart. Ask which is right, and get the answer in writing before you inspect.
Photo 4 shows 268,400 km · the details box says 168,400 km
No money owing, not recorded stolen, not written off. And it's the same car as the ad — the VIN, year, model, colour and plate on the certificate all match.
4 stars in Australia's Used Car Safety Ratings for the 2011–2015 Hilux, scored on real crash outcomes rather than a lab test.
“Which reading is the real one — the dash or the ad?” · “Is the logbook with the car?” · “Can I bring a mechanic on Saturday?” · “Whose name is the rego in?”
Every check
What RegoSnap looks for
Scam warning signs
In the seller's own words: deposit to hold, seller overseas, a shipping agent, payment by gift card.
Your PPSR certificate, read for you
Money owing, recorded stolen, written off — turned from legal wording into a sentence.
Does the certificate match the ad?
VIN, make, model, year, colour and plate compared line by line.
Numbers that don't add up
Like 2,020,500 km on an eight-year-old car, or two odometers in one ad.
Safety rating
From Australia's Used Car Safety Ratings, built on real crash data for that model and year.
Questions to ask
Written for the exact car in front of you, not a generic checklist.
Four steps
How a check runs
Screenshot the listing — photos, details box, the seller's description, the spec table. Up to six of the one car.
RegoSnap shows you what it read, so you can fix anything it got wrong before it decides.
It walks you through the official $2 PPSR search, then reads the certificate you get back.
One verdict — red, amber or green — with every point showing where it came from.
What it costs
Pay for the car you're actually buying
As many cars as you like for 30 days. It doesn't renew — when it ends, it ends.
Get the passNote — the $2 PPSR search is paid to the government on the PPSR website, not to us. We never see your card; payments go through Stripe.
Why it exists
Half of Australia's used cars are sold with no protection at all
About half the used cars sold here each year are private sales, where none of the dealer protections apply. The PPSR search that reveals finance, theft and write-offs costs $2 and takes a minute — but it comes back as a wall of legal wording, and it only helps if you knew to run it in the first place.
RegoSnap does the reading, and says what it means.
Honest limits
What it can't tell you
- It's a pre-screen, not a mechanical inspection. Still see the car, still get a mechanic under it.
- It reads the certificate you give it. We're not part of the PPSR and can't run searches for you.
- Safety ratings cover cars up to about 2019; newer and rarer models often aren't rated.
- There's no public recall feed, so RegoSnap links you to the government's recall search instead.
The full list of what RegoSnap can't tell you, and how it's tested →
Read first
Guides
- What a check actually looks likeOne listing followed end to end — what the app read, every warning sign in the seller's own words, and what it refused to say.
- What does my PPSR certificate mean?You paid $2 and got a page of legal wording. What each section says — and we'll read yours free.
- A PPSR check costs $2How to run the official search yourself, and exactly what the certificate covers.
- “Money owing” on a PPSR certificateA worked example of a security interest and a write-off, and what to ask the seller.