Buying a used car shouldn’t be a gamble

KickTyres (kicktyres.com) is an online used-car check for buyers in New Zealand and Australia. For one car at a time, from NZ$13.49, it combines the vehicle's official history — ownership, odometer record, money owing, stolen and write-off checks, WoF — with the faults that exact make, model, generation and engine are documented for, a guided inspection you do at the car, AI photo analysis, a market valuation and a negotiation figure. It is an assistant for buyers and does not replace a professional mechanical inspection on the car you decide to buy.

We turn years of documented, model-specific knowledge into a simple inspection any buyer can follow standing next to the car — here is what a check covers, and what it cannot tell you.

Our inspection methodology

The output a buyer trusts with thousands of dollars has to be right or loudly wrong. Never a confident guess. So KickTyres follows a strict authority hierarchy: facts come from the record, and the AI helps you look, it doesn’t invent.

1. The car's facts first

   Every inspection starts from the car itself, the exact make, model, year, engine, and history in front of you.

2. Curated, documented fault knowledge

   Every fault we flag is documented in published sources and written into our database before it can reach a report — 14,821 of them, each with a real-world repair cost. The AI can't hallucinate a fault that isn't already there.

3. AI assists the human

   Photos are analysed for damage cues to guide your eye, but every finding is proposed, not asserted.

4. You make the call

   You confirm every finding. KickTyres is an assistant for buyers, never a replacement for a professional mechanical inspection.