Motcheck founder Connor Evans on his startup’s success

The tool, initially designed with the goal of being a user-friendly advisor for first-time drivers, has surpassed even the team’s expectations. We’ve spoken to the company’s CEO, Connor Evans, and asked him about the inspiration behind the startup and his view of the current industry.

A: Sure. Motcheck is an online platform that provides users access to official and third-party vehicle databases in a convenient way. It is a tool that gathers every bit of data on a particular car and then compiles it into a comprehensive report for you, highlighting potential red flags and inconsistencies. All that is required from users is to enter a registration plate number, and the service will do the rest.

I find it important because I’d worked in the industry for over 15 years at that point, and the number of people who have been scammed by vehicle sellers is way too high, and for all these years, there were no solutions to this issue. Before launching Motcheck, I worked as a senior analyst at the DVSA, and while I felt like I was doing something that was important and valuable, this issue was always something that bothered me a lot, and I felt that UK drivers needed some sort of tool to mitigate it.

A: There are dozens of ways to trick a car buyer if you really want to, and I’ve seen almost all of them over the years. Changing the numbers on the odometer, concealing any information on previous owners, outright lying about the vehicle’s condition and history of accidents — you name it. The problem is that a lot of first-time drivers are simply overwhelmed by the automotive market, which makes them vulnerable to these scams. It’s not that they are the only ones who get tricked; it’s just that it’s even more difficult for them.

Imagine that you finally got your licence and are considering buying your first car. First of all, which one do you need? The amount of research on various manufacturers, models, prices, and technical specifications is already absurd, considering just how many options you have today. Now, you are probably going to purchase a used vehicle, considering the state of the economy. That adds a whole new layer of difficulty — how do you do it the right way, what should you avoid, which vehicles are known to break more often than others — all of it is just too much, and drivers simply start feeling lost at some point, even before they get to the driving part.

Even if you do your best and thoroughly check everything you can, you will still probably miss something because of the sheer number of potential problems, or because you simply don’t have the experience to tell you when something is off. Beginners get scammed every day, and they have to do way too much homework to protect themselves, but it still isn’t super effective.

Now, what if we had a tool that would act as your own personal expert, of sorts? Motcheck https://motcheck.org/ was designed with that exact purpose, and it took us a while to make it exactly what it is today.

A: We think that convenience and accessibility are just as important as comprehensiveness when it comes to MOT, tax, and other vehicle information. Motcheck is relying on its algorithms and AI features to not just gather all the possible data and format it into a digestible and user-friendly report — it also analyzes it for you and shows exactly what you should be concerned about.

Our reports don’t just provide you with a few pages of numbers that you then have to check against industry standards or whatnot — the tool will explain why it considers certain discrepancies concerning and why.

So, imagine a user who is completely lost while researching cars to purchase. They are tired and frustrated at this point. They see a vehicle they like, but they realize that it will take them a while to connect with the owner and get them to share details, and even then, they might just lie. Now users can check the vehicle’s registration number and learn everything they need in just a minute. This removes all the stress and informs drivers at the same time — that’s why I'm so proud of what we’ve accomplished already.

A: Optimistically, we would love to see Motcheck progress into becoming the go-to tool for drivers across the country, and I genuinely believe that if this were the case, it could reduce the number of scams by simply rendering most of them inefficient. However, we’re still far from this right now, although we do work toward that goal.

For example, we are focused on increasing mobile accessibility at the moment, because we realize just how important and predominant mobile devices are for drivers. Nothing compares to this on-the-go way of interacting with platforms like ours, so we want to make it as seamless and intuitive as possible, which in turn will popularize it further.

As for the industry itself, I think the most interesting things will come from companies trying to tinker with AI tools and implementing them in all sorts of new ways. Sometimes this will lead to great quality of life improvements, other times it will be flops, and some of these ideas may be total disasters, but I think that it definitely won’t be boring, so I personally am always focusing on these news stories intensely.