2017 NISSAN MAXIMA 3.5 S VIN 1N4AA6AP6HC410642

This Nissan Maxima 3.5 S is a 2017 model, finished in silver. Power comes from a 3.5-litre petrol engine with six cylinders. Power reaches the wheels through a CVT gearbox. The specification is taken from the source data and has not been checked against other documents.

The clock stood at 116,036 miles when the data was entered. Miles and kilometres are easy to confuse, and a distance in miles looks lower than the same distance in kilometres. Services and inspections note the distance covered, so a car with an ordinary past builds up a trail of figures that climb year after year. A service book or a folder of workshop invoices is the simplest place to find past readings.

Primary damage in the record: side. A damage entry is a starting point for the inspection, telling the mechanic where to look first. Given the kind of damage entered, a mechanic should look first at the door pillars, the sills and the side airbags.

When checked, the car could be started and driven under its own power. A key was noted with the car. Condition notes are a snapshot: the car may have been worked on, stripped of parts or left standing since.

A car’s history is everything logged against it since it left the factory: registrations and owners, inspections, repairs and insurance claims. A car’s paperwork is scattered: the registry knows about owners, the workshop about repairs and the insurance company about claims. A car’s past rarely shows on the paintwork: a well-repaired accident or water damage that was dried out is easy to miss.

On a petrol engine, spark plugs, ignition coils and the cooling system are the routine items a service history should cover. The CVT gearbox should respond smoothly and without delay; jerks, slipping or hesitation on a test drive need investigating.

Stamped into the body and printed on a plate, the VIN is the one identifier that stays with a car through every owner, registration and repair. This car’s identification number is 1N4AA6AP6HC410642. The number in the car’s documents should match the one stamped into the body and the one on the plate at the base of the windscreen.

Depending on what is on file, a VIN report may include past registrations, mileage readings, damage entries, branded titles and theft checks. The absence of an entry is not proof that nothing happened; it may only mean that nobody wrote it down. A professional inspection makes sense whatever the paperwork shows, because no report measures corrosion, worn bushes or a poor repair. Before making a decision about this Nissan Maxima 3.5 S, check the history behind VIN 1N4AA6AP6HC410642.