Carfax Disappointment

[Johnboy]

Has anyone ran a carfax and been surprised after buying the car?

I bought a Jeep for my wife last year and had the carfax run at the car lot and it came back clean as a whistle. Well sometime goes by and I noticed that the rear door was re-painted and the hood latch replaced. The car was recently totaled and I got the report(Vinguard) that the insurance company uses and it shows the vehicle was in two accidents prior to me owning it. Both of the accidents had claim numbers so they were reported to the insurance company. How much damage I'm unsure, but do know that I would have never bought it if I knew this.

The point of all this is that just because it comes back clean does not mean it was not in a wreck. I know the next vehicle we buy, I'll use the service only if it's offered but would be reluctant to purchase it.

Thoughts??????

 

[Grumpy]

typical carfax!! I am sure others will chime in

 

[WS6]

Yep, I too bought a '98 GMC ex cab with a clean,one owner carfax back in 2000. When I showed it to my bodyshop dude he showed me where it had a new 3rd door and whole bedside put on it.

I've never trusted carfax again.

 

[Gary Wells]

Thanks, Dan, don't mind if I do. All just IMHO though & personal experience.
Carfax is not in business to make reports, they are in business to make money, and like any smart business, they are going to make it the easiest way possible. Carfax can only be held accountable for what is reported to them. Most, or maybe all law enforcement agencies do not have a budget to report claims to carfax, that is not their function or responsibility. A lot of insurance companies probably do not report claims to carfax. If they don't receive any benefit from it, they are not going to pay for time to report claims. A lot of people do not report accidents as they don't want it to go against their insurance costs. I have also heard that carfax is encouraged or supplied by auto dealers as they know or suspect that carfax is the least accurate reporting system available. Supposedly, auto dealers use one called Carchecks, or something similar, which is reportedly more accurate & complete. Your story does not surprise me, but sorry that it happened & it might be a cheap lesson learned in the long run. Consider also that some information data supplied to carfax is not correct, & carfax has no means of verifying it. HTH

 

[8UWITH6]

Yep, carfax sucks, and some insurance company's suck more! No further comments!

 

[GNeric]

I bought my old 85 GN in November 97 and new the history of the car. After owning the car for 6 years, a friend gave me a subscription access for a while and we checked all our vehicles. Everything came back clean except for the GN. Said it was in 3 other accidents since I owned it and then reported 6 other owners. I was the 3rd owner and now that Bruce has her, he is the 4th. It never left my possession and they argue that they are right and I don't know where my vehicles have been. I don't trust them.

 

[85_SS]

I've had a similar experience to GNeric. It's bad enough they miss stuff consistently, but they also seemingly make stuff up as well. A board member had a free carfax years ago so I ran my cars - my '85 Monte showed 4-5 ownership changes during the entire time I had owned the car. A few years later it suddenly showed that there has only been one owner, whereas I am the 4th. I would never pay for the service and wouldn't trust it even if you can get it for free. It's pretty well worthless IMHO.

 

[TurboRegal84]

Carfax is only as good as the records it reads. ALWAYS get a 3rd party independent inspection. (Both Mechanical and Cosmetic) Usually shops will charge and hours labor to do it but it will be the best money you ever spent. Also a fantastic negotiation tool as you can find out exactly when it will need brakes/tires/service. Usually shops can spot paintwork as well as any frame repair.

 

[SS_Sean]

Carfax is a waste of money, as most police agencies/dmv's/insurance co's dont report to them. It is strictly voluntary, and is in no way manditory. End of story.

 

[Chuck Leeper]

I get a good laff when I see that the car dlr is "offering" a Carfax, as an enticement to buy.
They doctor up titles, service records, and who knows what else.... I'd not doubt for a minute, that they'd hesitate to have a "boiler plate" C/F, to help "seal the deal"....

 

[faster]

I don't know where carfax gets its info but my guess is they make it up like the gossip rags in the supermarket.

They said my 95 Caddy Fleetwood was in two wrecks. I bought it from the original owner who bought it new. I know it was never wrecked. What ticks me off is they won't correct a wrong like the credit reporting agencies have to. If someone wanted to buy this car and trusted carfax I could never sell it. I've been through this car with a fine tooth comb and it was never hit.

Mikey

 

[GNBRETT]

Carfax can only be held accountable for what is reported to them.

That pretty much sums that up. Carfax vehicles do not get their info from inspecting cars obviously, it's simply from what is reported to them.

I think a Carfax is still a helpful tool but I would not hang my hat on it as being the be-all-end-all when deciding to purchase a vehicle.

 

[Johnboy]

I get a good laff when I see that the car dlr is "offering" a Carfax, as an enticement to buy.
They doctor up titles, service records, and who knows what else.... I'd not doubt for a minute, that they'd hesitate to have a "boiler plate" C/F, to help "seal the deal"....

I wondered afterwards if they had did something like this also as this car lot was a bit shady.

I agree it can be used as a useful tool, although I will not pay for it, only if it's available for free.

This is what the car looked like after the accident I wonder what carfax will say about it in few months???

[/IMG]

 

[GNBRETT]

Buff it out and it'll be fine

 

[TR Custom Parts]

My 30k GN shows up as having 130k so I am screwed if I ever try to sell it.

 

[85_SS]

My 30k GN shows up as having 130k so I am screwed if I ever try to sell it.

That's probably some fool at a repair facility assuming it's rolled over when entering service info one time. For this very reason, they typically state cars over a certain age (15+ years or so) that the mileage cannot be verified if it has a 5 digit odometer like our cars. Usually they are trying to protect themselves the other way around though - so that a 130K car doesn't get passed off as a 30K car.

The simple explanation for that though is that an odometer reading 130K is impossible, so whoever entered that info was obviously in error. Any buyer who can't tell the difference between a 30K and 130K mile car doesn't deserve to buy the car anyways

 

["Turbo-T"]

I will go out on a limb and say that Carfax can be helpful.

For instance, a month ago I saw a truck I really liked on a car lot. Got the vin and asked someone here to run it. Before I got the report back the truck was already sold.

When I looked at the odometer on the truck it read 125k. But according to Carfax when the truck was sold at auction earlier this year it had 265k on it.

So someone took it upon themselves to roll back the odometer or change out the dash cluster. I sure hope whoever bought the truck did their homework first....probably didn't.

But yes most of the time Carfax doesn't show everything. That's why you have to use your noggin and look for things like previous accidents (not hard to do if you know what you're doing) or floods or what have you.