2014 CHEVROLET SONIC LT VIN 1G1JC6SG8E4238096

This record covers a 2014 Chevrolet Sonic LT. The gearbox is automatic, with front-wheel drive. The fuel is petrol.

The clock stood at 76,621 miles when the data was entered. The figure is in miles and needs converting before it is compared with kilometres: one mile is about 1.6 km. The number on the clock proves little by itself; earlier figures logged at services and inspections are what make it believable. Older figures usually turn up on service invoices, inspection reports and past title paperwork.

The main issue noted for this car is minor dents and scratches. 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. With minor dents and scratches on file, the inspection should start with the paintwork and whether any dent has reached the metal underneath.

When checked, the car could be started and driven under its own power. A key is on file for the car. Condition notes are a snapshot: the car may have been worked on, stripped of parts or left standing since.

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. The paperwork is kept by different bodies – registries, workshops, insurance companies and lenders – so the history of one car is spread across many places. What a car has been through is seldom visible at first glance, and a respray can make even a badly damaged car look sound.

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. On a petrol engine, a rough idle, misfires or a warning light on the dashboard need looking into. 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 VIN 1G1JC6SG8E4238096 belongs to this 2014 Chevrolet Sonic LT. 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. No report is complete: a repair done privately and never claimed on insurance leaves nothing to find. 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. For this 2014 Chevrolet Sonic LT, the sensible next step is a history check on VIN 1G1JC6SG8E4238096.