2020 MERCEDES-BENZ GLS 450 4MATIC VIN 4JGFF5KE1LA075993

This Mercedes-Benz GLS 450 4MATIC is a 2020 model. The gearbox is automatic. The petrol engine has six cylinders.

The recorded mileage is 176,009 miles. High mileage alone does not rule a car out; what matters is whether regular servicing kept pace with it. Gaps of several years between logged figures deserve attention, as does any reading lower than the one before it.

No damage entry is on file for this car. Signs of an old repair – uneven panel gaps, overspray, a slight mismatch in paint – can still turn up at an inspection.

The car is recorded as running and driving. A key is on file for the car.

The record shows a clean title. Nothing on the title points to a total loss or a flood.

A car’s history is everything logged against it since it left the factory: registrations and owners, inspections, repairs and insurance claims. The paperwork is kept by different bodies – registries, workshops, insurance companies and lenders – so the history of one car is spread across many places. What a car has been through is seldom visible at first glance, and a respray can make even a badly damaged car look sound.

Regular oil changes and timely work on the timing belt or chain decide how well an engine copes with age. A petrol engine in good order starts cleanly, idles evenly and pulls without hesitation. The automatic gearbox needs its fluid changed at the manufacturer’s intervals, and invoices should show that it was.

A history check works by VIN because the number never changes, unlike registration plates and owners. For this car, the VIN is 4JGFF5KE1LA075993. Scratches, fresh paint or a replaced plate around the VIN markings are warning signs in their own right.

A VIN report shows what has been logged: earlier registrations, odometer figures, damage entries, branded titles and theft checks, wherever such data exists. No report is complete: a repair done privately and never claimed on insurance leaves nothing to find. A VIN check and a physical inspection answer different questions: the first says what happened to the car, the second what condition it is in now. Before going any further with this Mercedes-Benz GLS 450 4MATIC, it makes sense to look up VIN 4JGFF5KE1LA075993.