2012 NISSAN FRONTIER SV VIN 1N6AD0ER0CC450294

This Nissan Frontier SV was built in 2012. Power reaches the wheels through an automatic gearbox. The engine is a 4.0-litre petrol unit with six cylinders. Details for this car come from a single data source and may differ from its documents.

The clock stood at 171,936 miles when the data was entered. A clock converted from miles to kilometres should be documented, since the swap can hide the true mileage. 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. Service invoices and inspection reports each carry a mileage figure, and lined up in order they show whether the clock tells the truth.

Primary damage in the record: left front. Two cars with the same damage label can be very different: one needs a few new parts, the other major work. Damage rarely stays where it is first seen: an impact can reach the mountings and airbags behind a panel, and water or fire the wiring and electronics.

A ‘runs and drives’ note means the car moved under its own power when it was checked. A key is on file for the car. Condition notes are a snapshot: the car may have been worked on, stripped of parts or left standing since.

According to the source data, the car has a salvage title. At some point in its life, the car was declared a total loss. If any work has been done on the car since, photos and invoices should show what was replaced.

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. The paperwork is kept by different bodies – registries, workshops, insurance companies and lenders – so the history of one car is spread across many places. A clean, polished car can still hide a serious accident, a flood or years of hard use.

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. On a petrol engine, spark plugs, ignition coils and the cooling system are the routine items a service history should cover. 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.

The tenth character of the VIN stands for the model year, and the eleventh for the plant that built the car. For this car, the VIN is 1N6AD0ER0CC450294. A VIN that differs between the documents and the car, or shows signs of tampering, is reason enough to walk away.

Depending on what is on file, a VIN report may include past registrations, mileage readings, damage entries, branded titles and theft checks. 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. With this 2012 Nissan Frontier SV, the first step is a look at the history behind VIN 1N6AD0ER0CC450294.