Free Car Check had some problems later yesterday and earlier today with DNS which prevented it from contacting data providers. As a result FCC was unable to provide any reports and also kept timing out. If you were trying to get a check during those times and had problems you should be able to try again now. There were also some problems retrieving data about MOT failures due to what seems to be a modification of the MOTINFO site. I've put a quick fix in for it, though MOT expiry dates are now unavailable. I need to put together a better regex for it (I also want to get advisory notices).
On the plus side I've made some progress on getting the site itself into a more manageable state and I've been working on some highly exciting legal bits. I had previously submitted Free Car Check to the people at
MoneySavingExpert only to have it rejected for not having a privacy policy. So there's one up at the development site now.
I'm still looking for more useful addons to the site. I'm looking right now at:
- Registration Number Decoders (year of registration, DVLA office involved etc)
- VIN Decoders (make, model, year of manufacture, unique serial etc)
On some slightly more fun additions, I'm thinking:
- Maps of test stations - find out where a vehicle has been tested
- More environmental data - see the number of trees needed to offset the mileage of a car
Work towards being able to register has now started, so that'll be the next big project for the time. If you've got any opinions of what should be added next feel free to add a comment here.
