2014 NISSAN MAXIMA 3.5 S VIN 1N4AA5AP1EC463254

This Nissan Maxima 3.5 S is a 2014 model, finished in silver. Power comes from a 3.5-litre petrol engine with six cylinders. There is an automatic gearbox, with front-wheel drive. The specification is taken from the source data and has not been checked against other documents.

The record gives the mileage as 119,330 miles. Miles and kilometres are easy to confuse, and a distance in miles looks lower than the same distance in kilometres. A single figure proves little: what makes a mileage believable is a series of readings that rise steadily over the years. Older figures usually turn up on service invoices, inspection reports and past title paperwork.

Primary damage in the record: mechanical. Two cars with the same damage label can be very different: one needs a few new parts, the other major work.

A key is on file for the car. A condition note describes the car at one moment; months of standing or later work on the car can change the picture in either direction.

A car’s history answers three questions: who kept it, how it was looked after and what went wrong along the way. Pieces of a car’s history sit with registries, dealers, workshops and insurance companies, and none of them sees the whole picture. What a car has been through is seldom visible at first glance, and a respray can make even a badly damaged car look sound.

For the engine, the service history matters most: oil changes, filters and the timing belt or chain are the entries to look for. On a petrol engine, spark plugs, ignition coils and the cooling system are the routine items a service history should cover. 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.

A vehicle identification number has 17 characters: the first three name the manufacturer, the next six describe the model and its specification, and the last eight identify the individual car. The VIN 1N4AA5AP1EC463254 belongs to this 2014 Nissan Maxima 3.5 S. 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.

Where entries exist, a VIN check can show changes of owner, past mileage readings, reported damage and whether the car is listed as stolen. No report is complete: a repair done privately and never claimed on insurance leaves nothing to find. A professional inspection makes sense whatever the paperwork shows, because no report measures corrosion, worn bushes or a poor repair. Before going any further with this Nissan Maxima 3.5 S, it makes sense to look up VIN 1N4AA5AP1EC463254.