2018 NISSAN LEAF SV VIN 1N4AZ1CP7JC308751

This entry is for a 2018 Nissan Leaf SV. Power comes from electricity alone. The car has front-wheel drive.

The record gives the mileage as 124,506 miles. The instruments count in miles; the same distance in kilometres is about 1.6 times the figure. Averaged over the car’s age, the mileage works out well above the usual annual distance, and wear on the suspension, brakes and interior should be judged with that in mind. 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.

This Nissan Leaf SV is recorded with front-end damage. Two cars with the same damage label can be very different: one needs a few new parts, the other major work. Given the kind of damage entered, a mechanic should look first at the radiator support, the headlamp mountings and the front crash structure.

A ‘runs and drives’ note means the car moved under its own power when it was checked. A key was noted with the car. Running condition describes a single moment, and standing or work done since can change it.

Title status in the record: clean. A clean title is a good sign, though it says nothing about wear, maintenance or how the car was driven.

A car’s history is everything logged against it since it left the factory: registrations and owners, inspections, repairs and insurance claims. 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.

The battery is the most expensive part of an electric car, so the share of its original capacity still available should be measured. Traction batteries and their wiring are sensitive to impact and water, so a damaged electric car should not be driven again until its battery system has been checked.

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. The VIN of this Nissan Leaf SV is 1N4AZ1CP7JC308751.

Where entries exist, a VIN check can show changes of owner, past mileage readings, reported damage and whether the car is listed as stolen. Paperwork is only as complete as the people who kept it, so a report with few entries lowers the risk without removing it. A professional inspection makes sense whatever the paperwork shows, because no report measures corrosion, worn bushes or a poor repair. With this 2018 Nissan Leaf SV, the first step is a look at the history behind VIN 1N4AZ1CP7JC308751.