carfax sucks

[slow87]

Buddy had some time left so I ran all the cars I ever had.

My old 01 neon showed being in 1 accident. It has been in five. Three of which had police reports. Only one accident had an insurance claim so I'm guessing thats how they got info.

My 96 impala is suspect of odo fraud. I've had it since 97 so I'm pretty sure it's right. It was stolen and recovered, but somehow it got into an accident in 05 while sitting in a garage being fixed from previous theft

Everything else just came up blank.

Has anyone else ran a carfax and had it be way off?

 

[cruzn57]

carfart.

ran a carfax on a vette, said no damage, no accidents, etc,
in reality, was stolen/recovery. had 3 accidents, had branded title,
carfart refused to honor its buy back waranty,
I am involved in class action suit now, any money recieved will go to
red cross, heart fund,etc.

my advice , do not trust them, have a local cop run natl insurance reporting agency.

 

[Gary Wells]

Carfax is great, well, at least it is much better than what we had years back for public access vehicle verification. Keep in mind that Carfax is and can only be as accurate as the info that is fed to it. Law Enforcement in general feeds no info into it to my knowledge. Why: L.E. is funded by public money. A lot of accidents are not reported to anybody anymore, resolved on the spot party to party. Not all insurance companies are sympathetic to Carfax's cause. I have heard that Carcheck is better and is what is used by most insurance companies. Some states are also notorious for allowing "salvage Titles" to disappear when registering a vehicle. A lot of states (most) do not require mileage accuracy statements after the vehicle hits 100K at the DMV. When you subtract all of the above possibilities, it doesn't leave Carfax much, if any to go on.

 

[SGRIM]

I agree with Gary, it is better than nothing. As long as there are crooks nothing will ever be perfect... Some people get rich off of fixing wrecked cars and screwing the DMV out of the knowlegde of such.

I buy cars every day so I guess I am used to it but if a car has been severly wrecked it is not hard to tell. There are plenty of little things to look for to aviod buying junk!

 

[Louie L.]

I have stated this in the Stolen car forum. Car Fax is a tool. It is NOT the final end all, be all answer before buying a car. It is very easy to beat the system. :frown:

 

[Quiky One]

Car fax is only as good as the info put it in. A great example was my grandparents Lincoln Towncar. My grandpa decided to take it through a river...it soaked the interior, engine bay, and trunk yet he never took it anywhere. So on carfax it is clean.

 

[dgoodhue]

Car fax is only as good as the info put it in.

I agree. One thing that does suck is when their is a reporting error. My daily driver carfax come back as a rolled back Odometer from the previous owner. The state inspection guy either did a Typo or was reading the trip odometer. I have the oil change receipts in the time period, plus I talked to the original Lady owner and I am pretty sure she didn't roll back the digital odometer. The car also has a minor fender bender (rear ended just replaced the bumper cover) Fortunately I knew this when buying the car from the dealer so I used that as a negotiating chip, they tried to tell me Carfax didn't matter and it was only internet thing, they gave in though.

 

[TR Custom Parts]

My GN shows up as having 100,000 miles more than it actually has. State emissions testing years ago thought the odometer flipped since it was such an "old" car and there was no way it only had 5000 miles on it. So, if and when I sell the car I am sure that question will arise.

 

[Gary Wells]

When getting smog inspection, I always tell the smog technician that "this is an original XX,XXX mileage car and if you have any questions or issues with the mileage as recorded on the odometer let me know before doing the paperwork and or smog check". Always check on your copy of the paperwork what mileage the tech enters and what boxes he checks off to make sure that there are no errors. Once an error is there for the world to see, you willnever get it off, and Carfax is not about to take a stand against what has been reported to them.

 

[LV GN]

does anyone still have access to carfax? i need one done for a bmw. vin. # wbagn63442dr00913. thanks. Len