2013 HYUNDAI ELANTRA LIMITED VIN KMHDH4AEXDU842298

The Hyundai Elantra Limited described here left the factory in 2013. The car runs on petrol. Power reaches the wheels through a manual gearbox. Details for this car come from a single data source and may differ from its documents.

At the time of recording, the car had covered 105,614 miles. The instruments count in miles; the same distance in kilometres is about 1.6 times the figure. A single figure proves little: what makes a mileage believable is a series of readings that rise steadily over the years. Service invoices and inspection reports each carry a mileage figure, and lined up in order they show whether the clock tells the truth.

Primary damage in the record: rear end. Whether the damage has been repaired since, and how well, is not something a damage entry can show. Damage rarely stays where it is first seen: an impact can reach the mountings and airbags behind a panel, and water or fire the wiring and electronics.

A note in the source data says the car did not run. The engine could be started. A key is on file for the car. Condition notes are a snapshot: the car may have been worked on, stripped of parts or left standing since.

The car carries a salvage title. A title like this is issued when repair was judged uneconomical or unsafe. A branded title follows the car through every change of owner, so it remains part of its history.

A car’s history is everything logged against it since it left the factory: registrations and owners, inspections, repairs and insurance claims. No single office holds the whole story of a car: registries, workshops, insurance companies and lenders each keep their own part. From the outside, a car with a repaired accident and a car without one can look identical.

When a car does not run, a compression test and the condition of the oil tell a mechanic whether the engine can be brought back to life. Many modern petrol engines are turbocharged and direct-injected; where they are, the turbocharger and injectors belong on a specialist’s checklist. On a manual car the clutch is a wear part, and a replacement in the service history is an ordinary entry rather than a warning sign.

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 KMHDH4AEXDU842298. 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. However complete the paperwork, only an inspection shows the condition of the body, suspension, brakes and electrics today. Before any decision, check what is known about VIN KMHDH4AEXDU842298.