Total Car Check are not the first organisation to begin offering vehicle provenance checks in the UK, that was in fact the organisation now trading as HPI Limited,
(HPI and HPI Check are trademarks of HPI Limited, Total Car Check is in no way affiliated with HPI or the HPI Check) who originally began trading in 1938.
Back then all car checks were paper-based and included many manual processes, a result could take several days, there were no databases or websites.
Nowadays it takes less than thirty seconds to reveal the history of a vehicle and all for less than two pounds. Times certainly have changed.