Every vehicle that comes through your workshop gets its own company-scoped record in Pistonlog. Once created, the record stays — its full service history is always available, no matter how many times it comes back or how many different customers bring it in over the years.
What a vehicle record stores
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Registration | Primary identifier |
| Make | Manufacturer (Ford, BMW, …) |
| Model | Specific model (Focus, 3 Series, …) |
| Year | Year of manufacture |
| Colour | Exterior colour |
| Fuel type | Free text (e.g. Petrol, Diesel) |
| Engine size | Free text, typically in cc (e.g. 1598) |
| MOT due date | Pulled from DVSA on lookup, refreshable |
| Mileage | Last recorded reading |
| Notes | Internal-only free text |
| Spec values | Custom per-garage fields (Vehicle spec fields) |
There's no VIN column on the vehicle record today — registration is the unique handle.
Vehicles are company-scoped (visible across all your garages), same as customers.
Creating a vehicle
From a jobcard
The most common route. When you create or edit a jobcard, type a registration into the Vehicle field. If no match is found, click New + to open the New Vehicle dialog, where the DVSA lookup pre-fills make / model / year / colour / fuel / engine size / MOT date. Click Create Vehicle and the vehicle is created and linked to that jobcard.
From the Vehicles page
Click Add Vehicle at the top of the Vehicles page: the same form, with the same DVSA lookup.
From the import flow
Bulk-loading from another system goes through the combined customer + vehicle CSV importer — see CSV import.
Vehicles and customers
A vehicle is not directly attached to a customer — there's no customerId column. The link is through shared jobcards: vehicle ↔ jobcard ↔ customer. This is deliberate, because real-world ownership changes. When a car is sold, the new owner picks it up on their next jobcard, the old owner stays attached to past jobcards.
Finding an existing vehicle
The Vehicles page lists every vehicle in your company. Use the search bar at the top to find by registration.
When adding a vehicle to a jobcard, an inline search does the same job — start typing in the Vehicle field and records matching the registration or make / model appear.
Editing vehicle details
Open the vehicle record's Vehicle Info tab and update any field. Click Save Changes.
Service history
Open any vehicle record to see every jobcard ever linked to it, in chronological order — across every customer the vehicle has had and every garage in your company. See Vehicle job history.
Mileage
The mileage on the vehicle record tracks the most recent reading: recording Mileage In on a jobcard automatically updates the vehicle's mileage as well (Mileage Out doesn't). You can also edit it directly on the vehicle record at any time.
Past mileages on jobcards build a service-history view of how the vehicle has accumulated miles over time.
In this section
Creating a vehicle — DVSA lookup
Type a UK reg and Pistonlog pulls make/model/fuel/colour/MOT date/tax status from the DVSA
Vehicle spec fields
Custom fields for richer per-vehicle detail — engine code, paint code, key code, tyre size
MOT tracking
Every vehicle carries its next-MOT date, kept current via DVSA. Reminders fire from this date.
Vehicle job history
Every jobcard a vehicle has been on, across every customer and every garage — on the vehicle record forever