2019 JEEP CHEROKEE LIMITED 4X4 VIN 1C4PJMDN9KD256626

This record covers a 2019 Jeep Cherokee Limited 4X4. Power reaches the wheels through an automatic gearbox. The engine is a 2.0-litre petrol unit with four cylinders. Every figure for this car is given as it appears in the source data.

At the time of recording, the car had covered 24,249 miles. Miles and kilometres are easy to confuse, and a distance in miles looks lower than the same distance in kilometres. Low mileage for the car’s age is good news only if older readings confirm it. The number on the clock proves little by itself; earlier figures logged at services and inspections are what make it believable. Figures carry most weight when they come from independent sources: workshops, inspection stations and past title paperwork.

Primary damage in the record: front end. A damage entry is a starting point for the inspection, telling the mechanic where to look first. With front-end damage on file, the inspection should start with the radiator support, the headlamp mountings and the front crash structure.

The record notes that the car ran and drove. A key was present. Months of standing can leave a car with seized brakes and perished tyres.

Title status in the record: salvage. Titles of this type are issued to cars declared a total loss.

A car’s history is the sum of what has happened to it since it was new, and most of it has left a trace on paper somewhere. No single office holds the whole story of a car: registries, workshops, insurance companies and lenders each keep their own part. A car’s past rarely shows on the paintwork: a well-repaired accident or water damage that was dried out is easy to miss.

For the engine, the service history matters most: oil changes, filters and the timing belt or chain are the entries to look for. Many modern petrol engines are turbocharged and direct-injected; where they are, the turbocharger and injectors belong on a specialist’s checklist. Automatic transmissions, CVTs included, are expensive to repair, so the test drive should include pulling away from a standstill and a stretch at motorway speed. With four-wheel drive, mismatched tyres can strain the centre differential or coupling, so all four should be the same make and similarly worn.

The ninth character of the VIN is a check digit calculated from the other sixteen, so a mistyped or invented number does not add up. The VIN 1C4PJMDN9KD256626 belongs to this 2019 Jeep Cherokee Limited 4X4. The VIN usually appears at the base of the windscreen, on a door pillar and stamped into the body, and all of them should match the documents.

A VIN report shows what has been logged: earlier registrations, odometer figures, damage entries, branded titles and theft checks, wherever such data exists. A professional inspection makes sense whatever the paperwork shows, because no report measures corrosion, worn bushes or a poor repair. The next step is to look up the history behind VIN 1C4PJMDN9KD256626.