2016 DODGE GRAND CARAVAN SXT VIN 2C4RDGCG5GR224619

The Dodge Grand Caravan SXT described here left the factory in 2016. The petrol engine has six cylinders. The gearbox is automatic, with front-wheel drive. Every figure for this car is given as it appears in the source data.

The record gives the mileage as 167,644 miles. The instruments count in miles; the same distance in kilometres is about 1.6 times the figure. A car that has covered this much distance for its age has worked hard, and a mechanic should judge the wear accordingly. A later figure lower than an earlier one points to a replaced instrument cluster or an odometer that has been wound back. A service book or a folder of workshop invoices is the simplest place to find past readings.

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

As a non-runner, the car needs its engine, gearbox and electrics assessed before anything else. The engine could not be started. A key was there when the car was checked. Months of standing can leave a car with seized brakes and perished tyres.

The car carries a salvage title. Titles of this type are issued to cars declared a total loss.

A car’s history is everything logged against it since it left the factory: registrations and owners, inspections, repairs and insurance claims. The paperwork is kept by different bodies – registries, workshops, insurance companies and lenders – so the history of one car is spread across many places. 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. On a car that does not run, the automatic gearbox cannot be judged on the road; the colour and smell of its fluid and a diagnostic scan give the first clues.

The tenth character of the VIN stands for the model year, and the eleventh for the plant that built the car. The VIN of this Dodge Grand Caravan SXT is 2C4RDGCG5GR224619. Scratches, fresh paint or a replaced plate around the VIN markings are warning signs in their own right.

Where entries exist, a VIN check can show changes of owner, past mileage readings, reported damage and whether the car is listed as stolen. 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 2C4RDGCG5GR224619.