2010 TOYOTA RAV4 LIMITED VIN JTMDF4DV1AD038781

This record covers a 2010 Toyota RAV4 Limited, finished in black. Power reaches the wheels through an automatic gearbox. Power comes from a 2.5-litre petrol engine with four cylinders.

At the time of recording, the car had covered 153,019 miles. A clock converted from miles to kilometres should be documented, since the swap can hide the true mileage. Gaps of several years between logged figures deserve attention, as does any reading lower than the one before it.

The record lists damage across the whole body as the main problem on this car. Two cars with the same damage label can be very different: one needs a few new parts, the other major work.

When it was checked, the car could not be driven. The engine started, but that says nothing yet about the gearbox or the drive to the wheels. A key was there when the car was checked. Months of standing can leave a car with seized brakes and perished tyres.

The car carries a clean title. There is no salvage or similar mark, so the car was never recorded as a total loss.

Registrations, changes of owner, inspection results and accident claims together make up what is called a car’s history. 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.

Many modern petrol engines are turbocharged and direct-injected; where they are, the turbocharger and injectors belong on a specialist’s checklist. While the car does not run, stored fault codes and a look at the fluid are the only early evidence of how the automatic gearbox has fared. 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. The VIN on file for this car is JTMDF4DV1AD038781. A VIN that differs between the documents and the car, or shows signs of tampering, is reason enough to walk away.

Depending on what is on file, a VIN report may include past registrations, mileage readings, damage entries, branded titles and theft checks. A repair paid for in cash at a small workshop leaves no trace in any database, so no report can list it. 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. A history check on VIN JTMDF4DV1AD038781 is the place to start.