2014 TOYOTA RAV4 XLE VIN 2T3RFREV4EW188362

The Toyota RAV4 XLE described here left the factory in 2014. Under the bonnet is a 2.5-litre petrol engine. There is an automatic gearbox, with four-wheel drive. Every figure for this car is given as it appears in the source data.

At the time of recording, the car had covered 144,837 miles. The figure is in miles and needs converting before it is compared with kilometres: one mile is about 1.6 km. The number on the clock proves little by itself; earlier figures logged at services and inspections are what make it believable. Service invoices and inspection reports each carry a mileage figure, and lined up in order they show whether the clock tells the truth.

The record lists rollover damage as the main problem on this car. A damage entry is a starting point for the inspection, telling the mechanic where to look first. With rollover damage on file, the inspection should start with the roof, the pillars and every airbag.

A key was noted with the car.

Behind every used car lies a string of events: who owned it and for how long, what the inspections found and which repairs and claims were made. 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.

A cold start, the colour of the exhaust smoke and any oil leaks tell a mechanic a good deal about how an engine has been treated. On a petrol engine, a rough idle, misfires or a warning light on the dashboard need looking into. 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 car with four-wheel drive has extra differentials and often a transfer case, which an inspection should cover alongside the engine and gearbox.

The tenth character of the VIN stands for the model year, and the eleventh for the plant that built the car. This car’s identification number is 2T3RFREV4EW188362. 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 gathers what different sources know about a car, such as the number of owners, mileage readings, damage and any branded title. No report is complete: a repair done privately and never claimed on insurance leaves nothing to find. 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. Look up the history of VIN 2T3RFREV4EW188362 first, and let what it shows guide the inspection.