2014 FORD ESCAPE SE VIN 1FMCU0GX1EUD91627

The Ford Escape SE described here left the factory in 2014. Power reaches the wheels through an automatic gearbox. The fuel is petrol. Details for this car come from a single data source and may differ from its documents.

The recorded mileage is 156,873 miles. A clock converted from miles to kilometres should be documented, since the swap can hide the true mileage. A later figure lower than an earlier one points to a replaced instrument cluster or an odometer that has been wound back. Service invoices and inspection reports each carry a mileage figure, and lined up in order they show whether the clock tells the truth.

Primary damage in the record: vandalism. The damage type is a short label: the extent of the damage and the quality of any repair still have to be judged on the car. With damage from vandalism on file, the inspection should start with the glass, the locks, the paintwork and the interior.

A ‘runs and drives’ note means the car moved under its own power when it was checked. A key was present.

Title status in the record: salvage. A title of this kind usually means the car was written off as a total loss after damage. A branded title follows the car through every change of owner, so it remains part of its history.

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. A car’s paperwork is scattered: the registry knows about owners, the workshop about repairs and the insurance company about claims. What a car has been through is seldom visible at first glance, and a respray can make even a badly damaged car look sound.

A petrol engine in good order starts cleanly, idles evenly and pulls without hesitation. 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.

Every modern car carries a 17-character VIN, its identity for life, and no two cars share one. The VIN 1FMCU0GX1EUD91627 belongs to this 2014 Ford Escape SE. 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. Paperwork is only as complete as the people who kept it, so a report with few entries lowers the risk without removing it. A history report says nothing about the car’s present condition: the frame, corrosion, electrics and the quality of any repair are judged on a lift by a mechanic. The next step is to look up the history behind VIN 1FMCU0GX1EUD91627.