2014 HONDA ACCORD SPORT VIN 1HGCR2F59EA269585

This record covers a 2014 Honda Accord Sport, finished in grey. There is a CVT gearbox, with front-wheel drive. Under the bonnet is a 2.4-litre petrol engine. The specification is taken from the source data and has not been checked against other documents.

The source data puts the mileage at 159,855 miles. Turning back an odometer takes little skill and leaves no visible trace, which is why earlier figures matter more than the display. Older figures usually turn up on service invoices, inspection reports and past title paperwork.

In the source data, the main issue is rear-end 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. Whatever the cause, a diagnostic scan of the car’s electronics shows fault codes that a visual check misses.

At the time of recording, the car ran and drove. A key was present.

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. A car’s past rarely shows on the paintwork: a well-repaired accident or water damage that was dried out is easy to miss.

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. A petrol engine in good order starts cleanly, idles evenly and pulls without hesitation. 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.

A history check works by VIN because the number never changes, unlike registration plates and owners. The VIN on file for this car is 1HGCR2F59EA269585. 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.

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. 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. The next step is to look up the history behind VIN 1HGCR2F59EA269585.