vinkodex.Why Vinkodex exists
You always buy a used car knowing too little. The advert tells you what is good about it. It does not tell you what can break.
Why we built it
The knowledge about known faults exists. It is just scattered: across forums, videos, official recalls and the heads of mechanics.
You do not have two weeks to collect it. You are looking at one car, and you have one weekend.
That is why this site exists. You find what you can know about the car you want in one place.
Six sources, six places. One buyer, one weekend.
Why it is not about the whole brand
We do not want to talk you out of the car. We want you to know as much as the person selling it.
What the listing writes, and what it leaves out.
A fault is rarely true of a whole brand. It depends on the generation, the engine and the transmission.
The list applies to what you read in the registration document: the generation, the engine and the transmission.
This does not make the decision for you. It gives you the questions worth asking on the test drive and at the workshop.
Brand, model, generation, then the engine. The list applies to the narrowest one.
What you find here
You start at the brand. Next comes the model, then the generation.
The generation page has the known faults and the recalls. Beside that is what you would check next to the car.
Your browser decodes the VIN. We do not send the 17 characters.
How a write-up is made
Source, our own text, a person reads it, then it goes out.
We do not copy anyone else's text. Every write-up is our own wording, and the source sits next to it.
Official data comes from open sources: NHTSA, EU Safety Gate and KBA.
We mark the article and the forum. A forum shows what owners talk about.
A person reads it before it goes out. If it does not pass, it does not go out.
That is not proof the car you want has the fault.
An empty list does not mean the model is fault-free. Write-ups are made model by model, and not all of them are done.
What the list is made of
- 4
- kinds of source
- official, statistics, article, forum
- 3
- level
- the generation, the engine or the transmission
- 1
- check
- a person reads it before it goes out
What this does not replace
The write-up informs you. It is not a technical expert opinion.
It does not replace a workshop inspection or a history check.
The detailed description is in the terms.The operator's details are in the imprint.Write if you have a question