2012 RAM 1500 BIG HORN VIN 1C6RD7LTXCS107650

The RAM 1500 BIG Horn described here left the factory in 2012. There is an automatic gearbox, with four-wheel drive. The engine is a 5.7-litre petrol unit with eight cylinders. Every figure for this car is given as it appears in the source data.

At the time of recording, the car had covered 149,768 miles. Gaps of several years between logged figures deserve attention, as does any reading lower than the one before it. A service book or a folder of workshop invoices is the simplest place to find past readings.

The record lists rear-end damage as the main problem on this car. 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. A lift and a diagnostic check show what photos cannot: bent brackets behind a panel, chafed wiring or deployed airbags.

At the time of recording, the car ran and drove. A key was there when the car was checked. 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. A branded title follows the car through every change of owner, so it remains part of its history.

A car’s history is the sum of what has happened to it since it was new, and most of it has left a trace on paper somewhere. 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.

A petrol engine in good order starts cleanly, idles evenly and pulls without hesitation. The automatic gearbox should respond smoothly and without delay; jerks, slipping or hesitation on a test drive need investigating. Drive to all four wheels means more to maintain: differentials and couplings have oil of their own, which some manufacturers want changed at set intervals.

A history check works by VIN because the number never changes, unlike registration plates and owners. The VIN of this RAM 1500 BIG Horn is 1C6RD7LTXCS107650. Scratches, fresh paint or a replaced plate around the VIN markings are warning signs in their own right.

A VIN report shows what has been logged: earlier registrations, odometer figures, damage entries, branded titles and theft checks, wherever such data exists. No report is complete: a repair done privately and never claimed on insurance leaves nothing to find. However complete the paperwork, only an inspection shows the condition of the body, suspension, brakes and electrics today. The next step is to look up the history behind VIN 1C6RD7LTXCS107650.