Starter Kit. Idea 463 of 500. Cluster 24
A used-vehicle history check: the owners, the mileage and the accident record of any car, searchable by its number plate
The mechanism, from the book
The one thing. A country where people do not expect the rules to hold cannot build anything else, and proof can be manufactured by private people, one published record at a time.
The first step
With the sellers' agreement, gather the history of 20 used cars offered for sale near you: the service book, the number of past owners on the papers and any repair bills for accident damage. Put each in a one-page report and offer it to buyers looking at those cars for a small fee. Then ask 3 used-car dealers whether they would pay to show a checked report with every car. One dealer who pays is the proof.
- Who pays first
- A family buying a used car who fears a hidden accident or a turned-back mileage, and will pay to know before they hand over the money.
- What leaves today
- Buyers who cannot trust a used car pay less for all of them; a checkable history lets an honest seller earn the right price.
Ask first
- Department of Motor Traffic. Ask which vehicle records can be shared with a buyer, and with whose consent.
- Data Protection Authority. Ask what consent is needed before showing past owners' details to a buyer.
Check before you spend
Where each record comes from and your right to show it, owners' consent for any personal details, and how a mistake in a record is corrected.
Find out these three numbers
- What would a buyer pay to check one car before buying?
- How many used cars change hands in your town each month?
- Which garages and insurers would share repair and accident records?
A comparison from the book
The fridge by the road. Chapter Six
"It is not character. It is accumulated proof."
Buyers trust a car whose record they can read, not a seller's promise about it.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.