2013 MAZDA CX-5 GRAND TOURING VIN JM3KE2DE1D0127624

This entry is for a 2013 Mazda CX-5 Grand Touring, finished in grey. Power reaches the wheels through an automatic gearbox. The car runs on petrol. Every figure for this car is given as it appears in the source data.

The source data puts the mileage at 174,131 miles. The figure is in miles and needs converting before it is compared with kilometres: one mile is about 1.6 km. Services and inspections note the distance covered, so a car with an ordinary past builds up a trail of figures that climb year after year. Older figures usually turn up on service invoices, inspection reports and past title paperwork.

The record lists damage to both front and rear 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. With damage to both front and rear on file, the inspection should start with the crash structures at both ends and the alignment of the body between them.

The car is recorded as running and driving. A key was there when the car was checked. Months of standing can leave a car with seized brakes and perished tyres.

According to the source data, the car has a salvage title. At some point in its life, the car was declared a total loss. The structure and the quality of any work done deserve a thorough inspection on a car with a branded title.

A car’s history answers three questions: who kept it, how it was looked after and what went wrong along the way. Much of a car’s past cannot be seen: a good body repair leaves no obvious mark, and neither do years of hard driving.

An engine that has had its oil changed on time is far less likely to cause trouble later, and workshop invoices are the proof. A petrol engine in good order starts cleanly, idles evenly and pulls without hesitation. The automatic gearbox needs its fluid changed at the manufacturer’s intervals, and invoices should show that it was.

A history check works by VIN because the number never changes, unlike registration plates and owners. The VIN of this Mazda CX-5 Grand Touring is JM3KE2DE1D0127624. The number in the car’s documents should match the one stamped into the body and the one on the plate at the base of the windscreen.

What a history report can list depends on what has been documented about the car: registrations, mileage readings, damage, branded titles and theft reports. Paperwork is only as complete as the people who kept it, so a report with few entries lowers the risk without removing it. A history report says nothing about the car’s present condition: the frame, corrosion, electrics and the quality of any repair are judged on a lift by a mechanic. A history check on VIN JM3KE2DE1D0127624 is the place to start.