2014 FORD EDGE LIMITED VIN 2FMDK3KCXEBA62382

This Ford Edge Limited is a 2014 model. Power comes from a 3.5-litre petrol engine with six cylinders. The drivetrain combines an automatic gearbox with front-wheel drive. The specification is taken from the source data.

The clock stood at 237,527 miles when the data was entered. The figure is in miles and needs converting before it is compared with kilometres: one mile is about 1.6 km. A car that has covered this much distance for its age has worked hard, and a mechanic should judge the wear accordingly. Turning back an odometer takes little skill and leaves no visible trace, which is why earlier figures matter more than the display. Title paperwork often notes the mileage at each change of owner, which makes it a useful cross-check.

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.

The record notes that the car ran and drove. A key was present. Condition notes are a snapshot: the car may have been worked on, stripped of parts or left standing since.

The car carries a clean title. Nothing on the title points to a total loss or a flood.

Registrations, changes of owner, inspection results and accident claims together make up what is called a car’s history. 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.

An engine that has had its oil changed on time is far less likely to cause trouble later, and workshop invoices are the proof. A petrol engine in good order starts cleanly, idles evenly and pulls without hesitation. 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 VIN is a 17-character code assigned at the factory: it identifies the manufacturer, the model and its variant, and ends with a serial number unique to the car. This car’s identification number is 2FMDK3KCXEBA62382. 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.

Where entries exist, a VIN check can show changes of owner, past mileage readings, reported damage and whether the car is listed as stolen. 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. Before going any further with this Ford Edge Limited, it makes sense to look up VIN 2FMDK3KCXEBA62382.