2007 CHEVROLET COBALT LT VIN 1G1AL15F777345048

This Chevrolet Cobalt LT is a 2007 model. There is an automatic gearbox, with front-wheel drive. Under the bonnet is a 2.2-litre petrol engine producing 170 hp.

The recorded mileage is 178,239 miles. The instruments count in miles; the same distance in kilometres is about 1.6 times the figure. Turning back an odometer takes little skill and leaves no visible trace, which is why earlier figures matter more than the display.

When the car was recorded, it showed rear-end damage. The damage type is a short label: the extent of the damage and the quality of any repair still have to be judged on the car. With rear-end damage on file, the inspection should start with the boot floor, the rear panel and the chassis rails.

A key was noted with the car.

The record shows a salvage title. At some point in its life, the car was declared a total loss. The structure and the quality of any work done deserve a thorough inspection on a car with a branded title, however sound the car looks.

Behind every used car lies a string of events: who owned it and for how long, what the inspections found and which repairs and claims were made. No single office holds the whole story of a car: registries, workshops, insurance companies and lenders each keep their own part. Much of a car’s past cannot be seen: a good body repair leaves no obvious mark, and neither do years of hard driving.

Many modern petrol engines are turbocharged and direct-injected; where they are, the turbocharger and injectors belong on a specialist’s checklist. The automatic gearbox needs its fluid changed at the manufacturer’s intervals, and invoices should show that it was.

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 1G1AL15F777345048. 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. 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. The history behind VIN 1G1AL15F777345048 is the natural starting point before any decision about this Chevrolet Cobalt LT.