How to read a vehicle history report without a mechanic
Title brands, odometer gaps, and the four lines that should stop a deal.
A history report is a timeline, not a verdict — read the entries in order and the car tells you what happened to it. Start at the oldest service date and make sure mileage climbs steadily from there; any month where the odometer goes backward, or a long gap with zero entries at all, is worth a phone call before you send a deposit.
Four lines should stop a deal outright: a branded title (salvage, flood, or lemon-law buyback), an odometer-rollback flag, a documented airbag deployment with no matching repair invoice, and a gap of two years or 30,000 miles with nothing recorded in between. None of them mean the car is undrivable — they mean the price and the story you were told need to be renegotiated.
