2015 NISSAN ALTIMA 2.5 SL VIN 1N4AL3APXFN301823

This entry is for a 2015 Nissan Altima 2.5 SL, finished in black. There is an automatic gearbox, with front-wheel drive. The fuel is petrol. Every figure for this car is given as it appears in the source data.

The car was recorded with 143,207 miles on the clock. The instruments count in miles; the same distance in kilometres is about 1.6 times the figure. Services and inspections note the distance covered, so a car with an ordinary past builds up a trail of figures that climb year after year. Figures carry most weight when they come from independent sources: workshops, inspection stations and past title paperwork.

Primary damage in the record: front end. A damage type says what kind of damage the car had, not how serious it was or whether it has been repaired since. With front-end damage on file, the inspection should start with the radiator support, the headlamp mountings and the front crash structure.

The record notes that the car ran and drove. A key is on file for the car.

A salvage title is on file for this car. A title like this is issued when repair was judged uneconomical or unsafe.

A car’s history answers three questions: who kept it, how it was looked after and what went wrong along the way. The paperwork is kept by different bodies – registries, workshops, insurance companies and lenders – so the history of one car is spread across many places. 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. The automatic gearbox should respond smoothly and without delay; jerks, slipping or hesitation on a test drive need investigating.

Every modern car carries a 17-character VIN, and no two cars share one. For this car, the VIN is 1N4AL3APXFN301823. Scratches, fresh paint or a replaced plate around the VIN markings are warning signs in their own right.

A VIN report gathers what different sources know about a car, such as the number of owners, mileage readings, damage and any branded title. Paperwork is only as complete as the people who kept it, so a report with few entries lowers the risk without removing it. However complete the paperwork, only an inspection shows the condition of the body, suspension, brakes and electrics today. Before making a decision about this Nissan Altima 2.5 SL, check the history behind VIN 1N4AL3APXFN301823.