2014 FORD FOCUS SE VIN 1FADP3F28EL404683

The Ford Focus SE described here left the factory in 2014. There is an automatic gearbox, with front-wheel drive. Under the bonnet is a 2.0-litre petrol engine.

The recorded mileage is 85,566 miles. The instruments count in miles; the same distance in kilometres is about 1.6 times the figure. 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.

The main issue noted for this car is damage to the right front. A damage entry is a starting point for the inspection, telling the mechanic where to look first. Given the kind of damage entered, a mechanic should look first at the right front wing, the suspension on that corner and the wheel alignment.

The record describes this Ford Focus SE as a non-runner. An engine that will not start could have a simple electrical fault or internal damage, and only diagnostic work can tell which. No key was present. A condition note describes the car at one moment; months of standing or later work on the car can change the picture in either direction.

According to the source data, the car has a salvage title. Such a title means the car was declared a total loss and can return to the road only after repair and inspection.

A car’s history is everything logged against it since it left the factory: registrations and owners, inspections, repairs and insurance claims. Pieces of a car’s history sit with registries, dealers, workshops and insurance companies, and none of them sees the whole picture. A clean, polished car can still hide a serious accident, a flood or years of hard use.

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. 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 history check works by VIN because the number never changes, unlike registration plates and owners. The VIN on file for this car is 1FADP3F28EL404683. 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. The absence of an entry is not proof that nothing happened; it may only mean that nobody wrote it down. A professional inspection makes sense whatever the paperwork shows, because no report measures corrosion, worn bushes or a poor repair. The next step is to look up the history behind VIN 1FADP3F28EL404683.