Carstat · the Korean insurance-auction registry

Start with
the VIN.

Seventeen characters follow a car through every auction, write-off and recall. Paste them and read the file we hold on it — or walk the block and browse what is trading now.

17 characters · letters and digits · I, O and Q never appear in a VIN

Registry · VIN search

Not on file

We have no record under this VIN. Nothing on file has carried it — and that is a statement about the file, not about the car.

If this car reaches the block, its record appears here.

Reference
this VIN
Status
no record
Filed
Browse the catalog

A match returns photographs, the damage record as stated by the seller, the Korean account with our English rendering, and every appearance of the VIN in the record.

No VIN in hand? Walk the block — all 80 live lots →

On the block

Live lots first · then the newest filings

134,734 lots on file. Korean insurance auctions run thin and fast: a lot surfaces for a day or two, the hammer falls, the listing vanishes. What is above is the front of the file; the rest of the record sits behind the search. Walk the block →

Recently filed

Latest VINs resolved into the record

Maker prefix · descriptor · serial — the same three-color line as every card in the registry

How the registry works

File · resolve · keep

01

The block is filed

Records appear here while the lots are still live — photographs and deadlines from the auction houses, preserved exactly as written.

02

The record is resolved

The VIN is extracted, the damage transcribed from the seller’s text — never inferred — and the Korean rendered to English once and stored.

03

The file never closes

The hammer falls and the listing vanishes from the auction site; the file stays. When the same VIN surfaces again, the new appearance joins its paper trail, odometer and all.

Read the stamps

The damage class · as the seller’s text states it

전손Total loss

The insurer wrote the car off entirely — repair was judged to cost more than the car. The heaviest class in the vocabulary.

침수Flood

Water reached the car. The seller’s account typically names engine, interior or underbody; the lot page marks exactly the zones the text states.

도난Theft

The seller’s text states the car as stolen — recovered damaged, or not recovered at all. Transcribed like every class: from the insurer’s own words, never inferred.

And when there is no stamp? Then the record holds no damage information — that is a state, not a verdict. An absence never means “clean”.

The paper trail

One VIN · every appearance · dated

A car that crosses the block twice is the same car, twice — and the record says so. This is the most recent VIN on file to have done it:

KNAMB81ABKS5766072027 Kia Carnival · Diesel

Appearance 1Filed 3 Aug 2026 · no damage class stated92,000 km
Appearance 2Filed 6 Aug 2026 · no damage class stated91,000 km
Between−1,000 km in 3 days — the odometer reads lower; both readings are kept as filed

Every row above is a filed record, read from the file — dated, odometer and all. Outcome is never claimed — whether the car sold, and for how much, is not in our data. Read the whole file →

The marque files

The premium files

By maker

Counted over every record on file

21 makers shown · All makers →

The model files

Most-read files · counted over the whole record

BMW 520 / Mercedes-Benz E300 / BMW 320 / Audi A6 / Genesis G80 / Lexus ES300h / BMW 530 / Tesla Model 3 / Volkswagen Tiguan / Mercedes-Benz C200 / Mercedes-Benz S500 / Mercedes-Benz E220

Asked and answered

9 questions · plain answers

Q·1What is a Korean insurance auction?

A closed auction where Korean insurers sell vehicles they have paid claims on — accident cars, flood cars, total losses. Only licensed dealers bid; listings run for a day or two and then vanish.

Q·2How do I check a Korean VIN?

Type the 17 characters into the search above. If the car has passed through the Korean insurance-auction block and the record is on file, it opens: photographs, the damage record as the seller stated it, and every appearance of the VIN.

Q·3Is Carstat free? Do I need to sign up?

Yes, it is free, and no. Type a VIN and the file opens — no account, no payment, no email. Every record reads the same way for every visitor: the photographs, the stated damage, the paper trail. Nothing on a record sits behind a checkout.

Q·4My VIN returns nothing. Is the car clean?

Not necessarily. An empty result means no record for that VIN is on file — we never convert an absence into a verdict. It may have been sold privately, exported earlier, or damaged without an insurance claim.

Q·5Is the mileage real?

We show the odometer reading the listing itself stated, with the date — nothing more. We do not certify mileage; no one can from a photograph. What we can do is line readings up: when a VIN appears more than once, each record carries its own odometer figure, and a number that goes down speaks for itself.

Q·6The same VIN appears more than once. What does that mean?

The car stood at auction more than once. Each appearance is filed as its own record, and the lot page links them into a paper trail: dates, odometer readings, stated damage, side by side. A car that returns to the block with lower mileage or a softer damage story tells you something no single listing can.

Q·7What does the damage stamp mean?

The damage class as the seller’s own Korean text states it — total loss (전손), flood (침수), front (전면), rear (후미) — transcribed, never inferred, and always shown in Korean and English together. A lot with no stamp is a lot whose record holds no damage information.

Q·8The record has no damage stamp. Is the car undamaged?

No — it means the listing stated no damage class, and we refuse to invent one. The car still passed an insurance auction, which is itself a fact worth weighing. Read the photographs and the seller’s text; they often say what the stamp does not. An absence is a state, not a verdict.

Q·9Can I bid through Carstat?

Yes — get in touch and we will walk you through it: how bidding works, what a lot is likely to cost landed, and what the record says before you commit. The Contact link in the header opens the channel we answer on.

The registry’s file · what a listing site doesn’t keep

Every claim on this site carries a source and a date

A listing tells you what a seller wants you to know. We keep the file: what the listing stated, what the official databases answered, and what the paper trail shows. Where a check hasn’t run yet, we say so — an absence is a state, not a blank.

The damage record

Ten zones, marked only where the seller’s own text states damage — nothing inferred, and an unmarked diagram never means “clean”.

In every new file

The recall register

Each resolved VIN is checked against the official databases — campaigns listed KO + EN, with the date we checked and the date we’ll check again.

Rolling out · priority VINs first

The paper trail

The same VIN relisted is the same car, tracked — every appearance dated, with the odometer’s movement between listings.

In every new file

Market position

Clean-market price bands and model statistics, matched by model and year — shown only with a sample size and a refresh date, never as bare numbers.

Live · where a priced match exists

The registry, in full

Walk the block.

Lots surface and vanish in a day — the file does not. Every record is kept while the lot is still live — the damage stamp, the VIN line, the deadline — and stays on file after the hammer falls.

Open the catalog →