2015 AUDI A6 PREMIUM PLUS VIN WAUDFAFC9FN003723

The Audi A6 Premium Plus described here left the factory in 2015. Power comes from a 2.0-litre petrol engine with four cylinders. Power reaches the wheels through an automatic gearbox. Details for this car come from a single data source and may differ from its documents.

The source data puts the mileage at 101,143 miles. The number on the clock proves little by itself; earlier figures logged at services and inspections are what make it believable. Service invoices and inspection reports each carry a mileage figure, and lined up in order they show whether the clock tells the truth.

The main issue noted for this car is side damage. The damage type is a short label: the extent of the damage and the quality of any repair still have to be judged on the car.

Without a key, a modern car needs a replacement coded to its immobiliser before it can even be started. 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 salvage title. At some point in its life, the car was declared a total loss.

A car’s history answers three questions: who kept it, how it was looked after and what went wrong along the way. Pieces of a car’s history sit with registries, dealers, workshops and insurance companies, and none of them sees the whole picture. Much of a car’s past cannot be seen: a good body repair leaves no obvious mark, and neither do years of hard driving.

On a petrol engine, spark plugs, ignition coils and the cooling system are the routine items a service history should cover. 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. This Audi A6 Premium Plus has the VIN WAUDFAFC9FN003723. Scratches, fresh paint or a replaced plate around the VIN markings are warning signs in their own right.

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. However complete the paperwork, only an inspection shows the condition of the body, suspension, brakes and electrics today. With this 2015 Audi A6 Premium Plus, the first step is a look at the history behind VIN WAUDFAFC9FN003723.