2012 AUDI Q5 PRESTIGE VIN WA1WKAFP0CA021583

This Audi Q5 Prestige was built in 2012. The fuel is petrol. The gearbox is automatic.

The record gives the mileage as 81,694 miles. A clock converted from miles to kilometres should be documented, since the swap can hide the true mileage. The number on the clock proves little by itself; earlier figures logged at services and inspections are what make it believable. Older figures usually turn up on service invoices, inspection reports and past title paperwork.

When the car was recorded, it showed side damage. Two cars with the same damage label can be very different: one needs a few new parts, the other major work. With side damage on file, the inspection should start with the door pillars, the sills and the side airbags.

The record notes that the car ran and drove. A key was there when the car was checked.

The record shows a salvage title. A title of this kind usually means the car was written off as a total loss after damage. The structure and the quality of any work done deserve a thorough inspection on a car with a branded title.

Registrations, changes of owner, inspection results and accident claims together make up what is called a car’s history. Pieces of a car’s history sit with registries, dealers, workshops and insurance companies, and none of them sees the whole picture. Much of a car’s past cannot be seen: a good body repair leaves no obvious mark, and neither do years of hard driving.

A petrol engine in good order starts cleanly, idles evenly and pulls without hesitation. 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. Drive to all four wheels means more to maintain: differentials and couplings have oil of their own, which some manufacturers want changed at set intervals.

A history check works by VIN because the number never changes, unlike registration plates and owners. The VIN of this Audi Q5 Prestige is WA1WKAFP0CA021583. A VIN that differs between the documents and the car, or shows signs of tampering, is reason enough to walk away.

What a history report can list depends on what has been documented about the car: registrations, mileage readings, damage, branded titles and theft reports. The absence of an entry is not proof that nothing happened; it may only mean that nobody wrote it down. However complete the paperwork, only an inspection shows the condition of the body, suspension, brakes and electrics today. For this 2012 Audi Q5 Prestige, the sensible next step is a history check on VIN WA1WKAFP0CA021583.