Built for UK independent garages

DVLA lookup software
for UK garages, mechanics and MOT centres.

Type a registration. Get the make, model, year, fuel type, MOT expiry and road tax status. Auto-filled on every job, quote and invoice. Unlimited lookups, no per-call fee, no third-party API to manage. Free forever for solo mechanics.

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UK garage software lives or dies on its DVLA integration. Every job starts with a registration; every minute spent retyping make, model and MOT date is a minute the car is not on the ramp. Autera connects directly to the DVSA and DVLA open data feeds, so when you enter a plate the rest of the vehicle record fills itself in. Same on every quote, every invoice, every customer return: the car is already known, the MOT is already tracked, and the only thing left to do is the actual work.

What the DVLA lookup gives you

Four jobs the lookup does for you, every day, in the background.

Type the reg, get the vehicle

AB12 CDE. Make, model, year, colour, fuel, engine. All filled in automatically. Job created. You are doing the work, not the typing.

MOT and tax visible on the record

Every customer vehicle shows its current MOT expiry and road tax status. Spot expiring MOTs at a glance, queue reminders, never lose a service window.

Linked across the whole app

The reg becomes the spine of the customer record. Every job, every invoice, every photo, every note hangs off the right vehicle. No mixing up the wrong car.

Built in, not bolted on

No third-party DVLA API key to manage, no per-call billing. Lookups are unlimited on every paid plan and included in the free Solo plan.

How DVLA lookup works in Autera

From plate typed to vehicle record built, in four steps.

1

Type or scan the registration

Plate goes in once on the first job. Use the keyboard, the camera, or paste from a booking email.

2

Vehicle details fill in automatically

Make, model, year, fuel, engine, colour. MOT expiry. Tax status. All in under a second.

3

Customer record built around the vehicle

The vehicle anchors the customer. Every future job, photo, invoice and note links straight to it.

4

Stays current on every visit

When the customer returns, Autera checks DVLA again. New MOT, new tax, new advisories, all updated.

Manual entry vs DVLA-powered lookup

What changes when the reg becomes the spine of every record.

THE OLD WAY
✕Re-typing make and model on every job
✕V5C documents in a folder somewhere
✕Wrong digit on a registration, customer drives off with the wrong invoice
✕MOT due dates kept in a spreadsheet that nobody updates
WITH AUTERA
✓Reg typed once, vehicle details auto-fill across the app
✓V5 data pulled live from DVLA on every job
✓Validation catches typos before they cost you
✓MOT and tax status visible on every customer record

Five seconds saved per job, fifty cars a week.

DVLA lookup is the kind of feature you forget you have until you go back to a system that does not. Every job opens cleanly. Every customer record is right. The MOT date is in there before the kettle has boiled.

Multiplied across a busy garage, that is hours of admin a week reclaimed for actual paid work.

Start free. Look up your first reg in 30 seconds.

DVLA lookup FAQ

Want the wider feature list? See the Autera homepage, the pricing page, or the MOT reminder feature.

Make, model, first registration year, fuel type, engine size, primary colour, MOT expiry date, road tax status. All from a single registration plate, in under a second. The data comes from the DVSA and DVLA open APIs that Autera connects to in the background.

Everywhere a vehicle is referenced. Adding a customer, creating a job, building a quote, sending an invoice, looking up service history. You type the reg once on the first job and it stays linked to that customer forever.

No. MOT history lookups are unlimited on every plan, and DVLA reg lookups are unlimited on Starter and above, with a fair-use allowance on the free Solo plan that covers everything a single mechanic does. There is no per-call API fee like you would pay using DVLA APIs directly.

It comes from the official DVLA and DVSA databases, the same sources insurance and MOT centres use. If a vehicle has been re-registered, the lookup reflects the current registration. If the data on a returning customer changes (new MOT, new tax status), Autera updates it on the next lookup.

Some private and trade plates do not return data. In that case Autera leaves the fields blank for you to fill in manually, but still creates the vehicle record so you can attach jobs to it. You will not be blocked from working on the car.

The lookup is built into Autera and powers the rest of the app, so there is no standalone API key. If you want a free public reg checker for your website, Autera also runs a free vehicle lookup tool you can link customers to.

Stop typing. Start looking up.

Sign up free, type a registration, see the rest of the vehicle fill itself in.

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