2006 CHEVROLET HHR LT VIN 3GNDA23D96S656585

This entry is for a 2006 Chevrolet HHR LT, finished in grey. Under the bonnet is a 2.2-litre petrol engine producing 143 hp. The drivetrain combines an automatic gearbox with front-wheel drive. Every figure for this car is given as it appears in the source data.

The recorded mileage is 149,483 miles. The figure is in miles and needs converting before it is compared with kilometres: one mile is about 1.6 km. A later figure lower than an earlier one points to a replaced instrument cluster or an odometer that has been wound back. Older figures usually turn up on service invoices, inspection reports and past title paperwork.

The record lists front-end damage as the main problem on this car. Whether the damage has been repaired since, and how well, is not something a damage entry can show. Whatever the cause, a diagnostic scan of the car’s electronics shows fault codes that a visual check misses.

At the time of recording, the car ran and drove. A key was present. Months of standing can leave a car with seized brakes and perished tyres.

A salvage title is on file for this car. Titles of this type are issued to cars declared a total loss. The structure and the quality of any work done deserve a thorough inspection on a car with a branded title, however sound the car looks.

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.

A petrol engine in good order starts cleanly, idles evenly and pulls without hesitation. The automatic gearbox needs its fluid changed at the manufacturer’s intervals, and invoices should show that it was.

The ninth character of the VIN is a check digit calculated from the other sixteen, so a mistyped or invented number does not add up. This Chevrolet HHR LT has the VIN 3GNDA23D96S656585. The VIN usually appears at the base of the windscreen, on a door pillar and stamped into the body, and all of them should match the documents.

A VIN report shows what has been logged: earlier registrations, odometer figures, damage entries, branded titles and theft checks, wherever such data exists. The absence of an entry is not proof that nothing happened; it may only mean that nobody wrote it down. The past is on file; the car’s condition today is a job for a mechanic, who can check the structure, underbody, electrics and any repairs on a lift. Before going any further with this Chevrolet HHR LT, it makes sense to look up VIN 3GNDA23D96S656585.