2015 TOYOTA RAV4 LE VIN 2T3BFREV9FW347539

This entry is for a 2015 Toyota RAV4 LE. The fuel is petrol. The gearbox is automatic, with four-wheel drive. The specification is taken from the source data.

The recorded mileage is 102,113 miles. Miles and kilometres are easy to confuse, and a distance in miles looks lower than the same distance in kilometres. Gaps of several years between logged figures deserve attention, as does any reading lower than the one before it. Figures carry most weight when they come from independent sources: workshops, inspection stations and past title paperwork.

Primary damage in the record: left side. A damage type says what kind of damage the car had, not how serious it was or whether it has been repaired since. With damage to the left side on file, the inspection should start with the pillars, sills and doors on the left side.

When it was checked, the car could not be driven. The engine could not be started. No key was available with the car. A condition note describes the car at one moment; months of standing or later work on the car can change the picture in either direction.

The record shows a clean title. 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. What a car has been through is seldom visible at first glance, and a respray can make even a badly damaged car look sound.

An engine that has had its oil changed on time is far less likely to cause trouble later, and workshop invoices are the proof. On a petrol engine, spark plugs, ignition coils and the cooling system are the routine items a service history should cover. While the car does not run, stored fault codes and a look at the fluid are the only early evidence of how the automatic gearbox has fared.

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. This car’s identification number is 2T3BFREV9FW347539.

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. For this 2015 Toyota RAV4 LE, the sensible next step is a history check on VIN 2T3BFREV9FW347539.