2015 HYUNDAI SONATA LIMITED VIN 5NPE34AF6FH108822

This record covers a 2015 Hyundai Sonata Limited, finished in brown. There is an automatic gearbox, with front-wheel drive. The engine is a 2.4-litre petrol unit with four cylinders. The specification is taken from the source data and has not been checked against other documents.

At the time of recording, the car had covered 145,202 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.

When the car was recorded, it showed side damage. 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 key was present.

The record shows a clean title. Such a title means no salvage, flood or similar mark was recorded against the car; it does not rule out damage repaired without a claim.

Registrations, changes of owner, inspection results and accident claims together make up what is called a car’s history. No single office holds the whole story of a car: registries, workshops, insurance companies and lenders each keep their own part. A car’s past rarely shows on the paintwork: a well-repaired accident or water damage that was dried out is easy to miss.

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. Many modern petrol engines are turbocharged and direct-injected; where they are, the turbocharger and injectors belong on a specialist’s checklist. 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. The VIN of this Hyundai Sonata Limited is 5NPE34AF6FH108822. 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. However complete the paperwork, only an inspection shows the condition of the body, suspension, brakes and electrics today. A history check on VIN 5NPE34AF6FH108822 is the place to start.