1994 MAZDA MX-5 MIATA VIN JM1NA3532R0509950

This Mazda MX-5 Miata is a 1994 model, finished in blue. Power comes from a 1.8-litre petrol engine with four cylinders. Power reaches the wheels through a manual gearbox.

At the time of recording, the car had covered 120,628 miles. Because the clock counts miles, any figure noted in kilometres has to be converted before the two can be compared. Little distance per year can mean long periods of standing, light use or a tampered clock, and only older entries tell these apart. Services and inspections note the distance covered, so a car with an ordinary past builds up a trail of figures that climb year after year. Older figures usually turn up on service invoices, inspection reports and past title paperwork.

Primary damage in the record: rear end. A damage entry is a starting point for the inspection, telling the mechanic where to look first. With rear-end damage on file, the inspection should start with the boot floor, the rear panel and the chassis rails.

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

Title status in the record: salvage. Titles of this type are issued to cars declared a total loss. If any work has been done on the car since, photos and invoices should show what was replaced.

Behind every used car lies a string of events: who owned it and for how long, what the inspections found and which repairs and claims were made. A car’s paperwork is scattered: the registry knows about owners, the workshop about repairs and the insurance company about claims. Much of a car’s past cannot be seen: a good body repair leaves no obvious mark, and neither do years of hard driving.

Many modern petrol engines are turbocharged and direct-injected; where they are, the turbocharger and injectors belong on a specialist’s checklist. A manual gearbox should change cleanly into every gear; a slipping clutch or a rattle at idle points to work that will be needed soon.

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. The record gives the VIN as JM1NA3532R0509950. A VIN that differs between the documents and the car, or shows signs of tampering, is reason enough to walk away.

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 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. Before any decision, check what is known about VIN JM1NA3532R0509950.