How to Read an AutoCheck Report, Section by Section

To read an AutoCheck report, start with the "Vehicle History at a Glance" boxes (state title brand, auction issues, insurance loss, odometer, accidents, recalls), then go straight to the detailed history table and read every event in date order with its data source. The score at the top is a comparison tool. It's the last thing I'd base a decision on. The glance boxes tell you what kind of problem exists, and the event rows tell you when, where, and who reported it.

AutoCheck's public sample report is a good teaching car, a 2015 Acura TLX, because nearly everything goes wrong with it. I'll use it as the running example. If you're staring at a real report right now in November 2026, keep it open next to this and go section by section.

The header: check it against the car before anything else

The top of the report lists year, model, engine, the VIN, vehicle class, country of assembly, vehicle age, last reported odometer with a date, number of owners, and the vehicle's usage type. Confirm the VIN matches the windshield and door jamb, and that the engine listed matches what's under the hood. On the sample, the last reported odometer is 4,432 miles from September 2015. That's an old reading for a car being sold years later, and it's your first hint that the record trail went thin.

The score and the "similar vehicles" range

AutoCheck's FAQ describes the score as predicting the likelihood the car will be on the road in five years, comparing it with similar vehicles on a 1 to 100 scale. The sample shows a score of 48 against a typical range of 76 to 87 for similar cars, plus a line saying the car has a 47% likelihood of being on the road in five years. A score below the range tells you something dragged it down. It doesn't tell you what, which is why you keep reading. Our post on how to read the AutoCheck score goes deeper on the math.

Vehicle History at a Glance, box by box

These boxes are where most of the decision gets made. Per AutoCheck's glossary on the sample report:

• State Title Brand checks fire, hail, flood, junk/scrapped, lemon, salvage, rebuilt/rebuildable, and odometer brands such as not actual miles. AutoCheck notes grey market and insurance loss or theft brands are not checked in this box and show up elsewhere.
• Auction Issue summarizes problems disclosed or found at auction, including structural damage disclosures, title brands, and odometer issues, as outlined in the auction industry's NAAA arbitration policy.
• Accident/Damage Check summarizes events that may indicate damage, with point of impact, severity, or airbag deployment when provided, and lists non-collision damage like fire, hail, or flood separately.
• Insurance Loss/Title Transfer flags an insurance total loss, or a title moved into an insurance company's name, which AutoCheck says usually signifies a total loss when it follows an accident.
• Additional History covers events that aren't damage or brands, such as abandoned, grey market, lien check, repossessed, and theft.
• Odometer Check looks for rollbacks, rollovers, or tampering reported by state DMVs or auctions, and also checks the sequence of readings for discrepancies.
• Open Recall Check lists open safety or emissions recalls.

Read the sample's accident box and you'll see three collision entries in 2015, two marked severe, with airbag deployment and structural damage flagged. Right below, AutoCheck adds a line I'd want every buyer to read twice, saying that not all accidents or damage events are reported to Experian and recommending a third-party inspection before purchase.

The odometer section has three separate checks

When there's a problem, the sample breaks it into a state title odometer check, an auction odometer check, and an odometer calculation check. Those are different sources. A state brand like "not actual miles" comes from the DMV. A calculation flag means AutoCheck's own comparison of readings found something off. The glossary defines Not Actual Miles as the actual mileage being reported as different from the odometer reading. If you see one, read our post on the not actual mileage brand before you negotiate.

The detailed history is where the story lives

Each owner gets a block with location, ownership start, and usage type, followed by events with date, location, odometer, data source, and details. On the sample, Owner 1 is a Hawaii lease. The rows show a salvage entry, an insurance loss with the vehicle sold by the insurer, a police-reported front impact, a total loss report, then a California junk vehicle entry. In 2017 the car shows up in Utah with a title marked not actual miles and salvage, then a corrected title marked rebuilt. Owner 2 registers it in Utah every year after that.

So a car can collect brands in three states. Reading only the last owner's rows, you'd see a Utah rebuilt title and miss that California once called it junk. Always scroll to the first row. The data source column matters too: a Motor Vehicle Dept. entry carries more weight than a vague third-party note.

Recalls, maintenance, and the warranty estimate

The sample lists two open recalls with their campaign numbers and a "Remedy Available" status. Check them on NHTSA's site too. NHTSA notes its VIN search won't show recalls that were already repaired or certain non-safety campaigns, so the two sources can differ. The warranty section is an estimate built from the best available in-service date and a mileage you type in, and AutoCheck says plainly to verify coverage with a dealer.

Before you trust any report

Look, a report you didn't pull yourself can be edited, cropped, or simply for a different VIN. We're a licensed reseller of CARFAX and AutoCheck, not affiliated with either company or with Experian, and we don't offer free full reports. Direct pricing is usually $39.99 to $44.99. We've been around $5.50 per report for guests, about $4.50 for members, and roughly $6.75 when you take both, so confirm at checkout. If something on your report looks wrong, AutoCheck has a dispute form, and we cover the process in how to dispute an AutoCheck error. Reading CARFAX instead? See how to read a CARFAX report.

Sources

• AutoCheck: Sample vehicle history report and glossary
• AutoCheck: Frequently asked questions
• NHTSA: Check for recalls
• AutoCheck: Dispute form