2018 AUDI A6 PREMIUM VIN WAUC8AFC9JN020830

The Audi A6 Premium described here left the factory in 2018. The gearbox is automatic, with front-wheel drive. The engine is a 2.0-litre petrol unit with four cylinders. 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 91,163 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. Figures carry most weight when they come from independent sources: workshops, inspection stations and past title paperwork.

In the source data, the main issue is front-end damage. A damage entry is a starting point for the inspection, telling the mechanic where to look first. Whatever the cause, a diagnostic scan of the car’s electronics shows fault codes that a visual check misses.

At the time of recording, the car ran and drove. A key was there when the car was checked. Running condition describes a single moment, and standing or work done since can change it.

A car’s history answers three questions: who kept it, how it was looked after and what went wrong along the way. A car’s paperwork is scattered: the registry knows about owners, the workshop about repairs and the insurance company about claims. A car’s past rarely shows on the paintwork: a well-repaired accident or water damage that was dried out is easy to miss.

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. 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.

A VIN never contains the letters I, O or Q, which could be mistaken for digits; its 17 characters identify the maker, the model and the individual car. For this car, the VIN is WAUC8AFC9JN020830. The number in the car’s documents should match the one stamped into the body and the one on the plate at the base of the windscreen.

What a history report can list depends on what has been documented about the car: registrations, mileage readings, damage, branded titles and theft reports. 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 Audi A6 Premium, it makes sense to look up VIN WAUC8AFC9JN020830.