What to check before buying a car: a checklist for a nearly new vehicle

What you can check from home, from the VIN alone

The report from historiapojazdu.gov.pl

Free, no account needed, the result appears at once and can be downloaded as a PDF. The form asks for the registration number, the VIN and the date of first registration, and all three are in the vehicle registration document. A seller who will not give them to you has just saved you the rest of the conversation. In the mObywatel app the same service asks only for the registration number and the VIN.

You will find odometer readings from roadworthiness tests, the number of owners, the validity of third-party liability insurance (OC) and of the roadworthiness test, plus information about theft. For imported cars there is also data from abroad, including damage and flooding.

A tax lien, from one VIN

The search engine of the Tax Lien Register (Rejestr Zastawów Skarbowych) on podatki.gov.pl is free and accepts the VIN on its own. A lien attaches to the vehicle, not to the person: you never took on the debt, yet the car can still be used to cover somebody else's arrears. The court register of pledges (rejestr zastawów) searches by the pledgor's details, so there you should ask the seller for a fresh certificate.

What you look for at the car

How much warranty is left

The warranty follows the car and passes to the next owner without a separate assignment, although no regulation says so explicitly. The terms are written by the guarantor, so it is the manufacturer that decides what voids the cover. What counts is the date of first registration, not the model year in the advert: a 2024 example registered a year later as a demonstrator has twelve months more cover ahead of it than its twin.

Hence the weight of the service book: with most brands a single overdue service can void the warranty, and you find out at the first serious repair. Only an authorised service centre (ASO) can confirm the end date of the cover and the mileage limit, from the VIN.

The odometer against the rest of the car

You already have the readings from roadworthiness tests in the report, so compare them with the wear on the steering wheel, the pedals and the driver's seat. Altering an odometer reading is a criminal offence under Article 306a of the Criminal Code (kodeks karny), punishable by 3 months to 5 years, which does not mean it has stopped happening. A legal odometer replacement leaves a trace, because the owner has 14 days to have the new reading entered at an inspection station.

The VIN in three places

The vehicle registration document, the manufacturer's plate, the body. They have to match character for character.

What you settle before signing

Invoice or a private sale contract

From a company you get a VAT invoice or a VAT-margin invoice (faktura VAT-marża), and then civil-law transaction tax (PCC) does not arise at all. From a private individual you pay 2 percent of the car's market value, and you have 14 days from the date of the contract to file the PCC-3 declaration. On a car costing 150 000 zł that means 3 000 zł.

Who is liable when something breaks

Two routes and two different parties. The manufacturer is liable under the warranty, the seller for a lack of conformity of the goods with the contract. The latter runs for 2 years from delivery of the car and, with a second-hand item, nobody will shorten that period, because since January 2023 it is governed by the Consumer Rights Act (ustawa o prawach konsumenta). In a contract with a private individual the statutory warranty against defects (rękojmia) may be excluded in a single sentence, and that is most often exactly where it sits.

Advance payment or earnest money

Two words, two different endings. An advance payment (zaliczka) always comes back. An earnest-money deposit (zadatek) under Article 394 of the Civil Code (kodeks cywilny) stays with the seller when you are the one who withdraws, and when he withdraws he returns double. There is no right to a refund without a reason within 14 days here, because that applies to contracts concluded at a distance.

30 days to register the car

The period runs from the day after the purchase, being late costs 500 zł, and after 180 days 1 000 zł. The previous owner's third-party liability policy (OC) passes to you, but it will not renew itself. With an imported car, ask for the confirmation of excise duty payment from PUESC, because without it you will not register the car.

Three signals that tell you to walk away

The price is clearly below the market. With a nearly new car the market is transparent and nobody gives away 20 000 zł out of the goodness of their heart.

The seller will not give you the VIN before the meeting. That is done so that you inspect the car on the spot, under pressure and without a laptop.

“I have another buyer coming tomorrow.” Maybe he does. A car you did not have time to check costs more than a car somebody else bought.

How much of this list falls away when you buy from a company

Quite a lot, though not all of it. A car under an active warranty has a short history and a complete service record by definition, because otherwise the warranty would already be gone. An invoice removes PCC together with the declaration, and a company is liable to a consumer for 2 years and will not exclude that in a single sentence.

At CARMA the vehicle history report is ready before you sit behind the wheel, not after the test drive. The rest stays on your side: the contract read to the end and the warranty book of that specific car. With Buy&Rent, a purchase on preferential rent terms, you take the final decision after a few thousand kilometres driven, not at a desk.