2013 FORD ESCAPE SEL VIN 1FMCU9HX9DUB52392

This Ford Escape SEL was built in 2013. There is an automatic gearbox, with four-wheel drive. The petrol engine has four cylinders and produces 178 hp. Every figure for this car is given as it appears in the source data.

The source data puts the mileage at 148,389 miles. The instruments count in miles; the same distance in kilometres is about 1.6 times the figure. The number on the clock proves little by itself; earlier figures logged at services and inspections are what make it believable.

When the car was recorded, it showed minor dents and scratches. Two cars with the same damage label can be very different: one needs a few new parts, the other major work.

At the time of recording, the car ran and drove. A key was there when the car was checked. Running condition describes a single moment, and standing or work done since can change it.

A clean title is on file for this car. A clean title is a good sign, though it says nothing about wear, maintenance or how the car was driven.

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

Regular oil changes and timely work on the timing belt or chain decide how well an engine copes with age. Many modern petrol engines are turbocharged and direct-injected; where they are, the turbocharger and injectors belong on a specialist’s checklist. 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 1FMCU9HX9DUB52392. 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.

What a history report can list depends on what has been documented about the car: registrations, mileage readings, damage, branded titles and theft reports. The absence of an entry is not proof that nothing happened; it may only mean that nobody wrote it down. The past is on file; the car’s condition today is a job for a mechanic, who can check the structure, underbody, electrics and any repairs on a lift. With this 2013 Ford Escape SEL, the first step is a look at the history behind VIN 1FMCU9HX9DUB52392.