2015 MERCEDES-BENZ C 300 4MATIC VIN 55SWF4KB4FU001790

This Mercedes-Benz C 300 4MATIC was built in 2015. The petrol engine has four cylinders. There is an automatic gearbox, with all-wheel drive.

The recorded mileage is 115,497 miles. The instruments count in miles; the same distance in kilometres is about 1.6 times the figure. A later figure lower than an earlier one points to a replaced instrument cluster or an odometer that has been wound back. A service book or a folder of workshop invoices is the simplest place to find past readings.

Primary damage in the record: rear end. A damage entry is a starting point for the inspection, telling the mechanic where to look first.

When checked, the car could be started and driven under its own power. A key was present. Running condition describes a single moment, and standing or work done since can change it.

According to the source data, the car has a non-repairable 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.

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

Regular oil changes and timely work on the timing belt or chain decide how well an engine copes with age. On a petrol engine, a rough idle, misfires or a warning light on the dashboard need looking into. The automatic gearbox needs its fluid changed at the manufacturer’s intervals, and invoices should show that it was.

The tenth character of the VIN stands for the model year, and the eleventh for the plant that built the car. The record gives the VIN as 55SWF4KB4FU001790.

A VIN report gathers what different sources know about a car, such as the number of owners, mileage readings, damage and any branded title. The absence of an entry is not proof that nothing happened; it may only mean that nobody wrote it down. A history report says nothing about the car’s present condition: the frame, corrosion, electrics and the quality of any repair are judged on a lift by a mechanic. With this 2015 Mercedes-Benz C 300 4MATIC, the first step is a look at the history behind VIN 55SWF4KB4FU001790.