Could not really put this in a subject title.

Let's say you want to buy second hand, but don't know that much about cars, you are in pretty deep water here in Thailand....

Is there information available either thru insurances or manufacturers if the car has had an accident, big repairs, is stolen, or what have you?

Ok, i guess the stolen part is a bit overexaggerated, but accidents or big repairs would be great if they could be found out just by giving licence plate or registration number?

is there such a service here in Thailand like you have in UK and other countries.

To at least take out a bit of the 2nd hand buying risk.

A competent mechanic is your best friend here, especially the ones that can spot lack of maintenance and/or identifiy an accident repair.

If someone does have the car's service book that's been filled out by the dealership, you can go check to see if it's true or not too. A receipt trail is a good thing as well.

After that, good luck! Word of mouth by the owner and work done by private garages could be suspect......

Yes SoCalChris is right, service history is important and can give you hints if the odometer have been tampered with.

There is a company in BKK (forgot the name) that can check the car for you, they check the engine and also the chassis with laser so they will detect if the car had been in an accident or not.

Some cars that had an accident have been welded up by some small shop and will never be the same again so be careful.

Yes SoCalChris is right, service history is important and can give you hints if the odometer have been tampered with.

There is a company in BKK (forgot the name) that can check the car for you, they check the engine and also the chassis with laser so they will detect if the car had been in an accident or not.

Some cars that had an accident have been welded up by some small shop and will never be the same again so be careful.

It's called TestCar in Bangkok. They'll tell you the dealers that work with them.

http://www.testcar.co.th/english.index.php