From what I see Carfax is less than worthless and looks like outright fraud to me..
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/10/carfax_facts.html
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/10/carfax_facts.html
CK5
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Carfax disinformation
- Thread starter ntsqd
- Start date
roadnotca
3/4 ton status
Thats a laugh too because they just started a new add campaign on TV. I've heard some bad stories about Post-Katrina cars also.
yea i was in two crashes in my old s-10 blazer and they never showed up on my report
fabjunkie
1/2 ton status
The bed side of my Toyota was smashed and had been payed out my an insurance co. The motor had been rebuilt by a Toyota dealership. Neither of these showed up when I ran it.
Add me to the "non-believers". I bought a car for parts that had been bought back by the owner after being totalled in an accident. Approximately (minimum) four months it had been totalled and still didn't show.
garlicbreath
1/2 ton status
My uncle rolled his 93 dodge ram diesel 4x4 down a mountain in colorado, $19,000 in damage. The only thing they were able to re-use was the frame, motor, tranny and interior.
Guess what?
Perfectly clean carfag report.
Now wouldn't that be something you would expect to learn about a potential purchase?
And yes, it was totalled.
Guess what?
Perfectly clean carfag report.
Now wouldn't that be something you would expect to learn about a potential purchase?
And yes, it was totalled.
I bought an old cruiser from a village in the township I worked in and knew it had been wrecked. It fish tailed into a tree right rear quarter was replaced and it was a police car. Car fax never showed it as a municipal vehicle or any accidents.
I would still spend the money as it is just a little extra to see if it has been sold several times fast. Use it as one of many things to base buying a vehicle.
The truck I bought in North Dakota unseen but for eBay pics I never used a car-fax report. So it all is a crap shoot anyway.
As was said in a movie once "do you feel lucky?....Well, do you PUNK!"
I would still spend the money as it is just a little extra to see if it has been sold several times fast. Use it as one of many things to base buying a vehicle.
The truck I bought in North Dakota unseen but for eBay pics I never used a car-fax report. So it all is a crap shoot anyway.
As was said in a movie once "do you feel lucky?....Well, do you PUNK!"
Carfax itself doesn't do anything, except check the state DMV/Secretary of state for things that were reported to the state.
Alot of states have no laws saying things have to be reported, therefor it will never show. It's the same information that you can get for free by going to your states DMV and asking. Only bonus with carfax is, they check every state for that VIN.
So things like, well, here in Michigan, no odometer readings are ever actually recorded, even though they have space for it on the title when you sign it over, that's just for the buyer and is never recorded. Therefor, michigan histories will never show odo rollbacks. Some state's allow you to not even report major accidents. Like if your car is flooded, you can simply recondition the vehicle here in Michigan, even if the insurance pays, and it's never known to the state.
Then you have the unscrupulous. Insurance companies know they can get more for thier totalled wrecked if they simply tell the buyer, who's usally a used car dealer or a junkyard, "this car has been in a wreck, it's your responsibility to either total the car and sell parts or if you rebuild it you should re-title the car under a salvage title". Yeah..how many junkyards are going to re-title the car as a salvage just because they should? 90% of "totalled" insurance deals go this way. They sell the thing to a used car lot, hand over a perfectly clear title and say hear ya go, it's your job when you transfer the title to tell the DMV it was totalled. Yeah.....
Alot of states have no laws saying things have to be reported, therefor it will never show. It's the same information that you can get for free by going to your states DMV and asking. Only bonus with carfax is, they check every state for that VIN.
So things like, well, here in Michigan, no odometer readings are ever actually recorded, even though they have space for it on the title when you sign it over, that's just for the buyer and is never recorded. Therefor, michigan histories will never show odo rollbacks. Some state's allow you to not even report major accidents. Like if your car is flooded, you can simply recondition the vehicle here in Michigan, even if the insurance pays, and it's never known to the state.
Then you have the unscrupulous. Insurance companies know they can get more for thier totalled wrecked if they simply tell the buyer, who's usally a used car dealer or a junkyard, "this car has been in a wreck, it's your responsibility to either total the car and sell parts or if you rebuild it you should re-title the car under a salvage title". Yeah..how many junkyards are going to re-title the car as a salvage just because they should? 90% of "totalled" insurance deals go this way. They sell the thing to a used car lot, hand over a perfectly clear title and say hear ya go, it's your job when you transfer the title to tell the DMV it was totalled. Yeah.....
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Carfax
I've used Carfax on every vehicle purchase since about 2000. While it's NOT the gold standard, it'll tell you how many past owners, mileage in places that have inspections/emissions, and where it's generally been. If you are buying off e-bay, or thinking about going some distance to look at a car, this can help you catch out issues. So if someone says "one owner car from CA" you can make sure it didn't make it's way up from La, thru 3 other brokers or something. I was helping a friend look for a truck, we were gonna drive 60 miles up to denver, when we ran the carfax, and found that though the customer said the odometer showed 98k, carfax had at least THREE entries that showed 150k plus. We passed on going up there. I've found people advertising cars with one engine, and the VIN on carfax translates out to another (usually smaller, naturally) engine. If someone crashes a car, and fixes it off the records (doesn't go thru ins) carfax has no way of knowing it was wrecked. So it has it's uses for sure, but i wouldn't base my purchase soley on the report.
I've used Carfax on every vehicle purchase since about 2000. While it's NOT the gold standard, it'll tell you how many past owners, mileage in places that have inspections/emissions, and where it's generally been. If you are buying off e-bay, or thinking about going some distance to look at a car, this can help you catch out issues. So if someone says "one owner car from CA" you can make sure it didn't make it's way up from La, thru 3 other brokers or something. I was helping a friend look for a truck, we were gonna drive 60 miles up to denver, when we ran the carfax, and found that though the customer said the odometer showed 98k, carfax had at least THREE entries that showed 150k plus. We passed on going up there. I've found people advertising cars with one engine, and the VIN on carfax translates out to another (usually smaller, naturally) engine. If someone crashes a car, and fixes it off the records (doesn't go thru ins) carfax has no way of knowing it was wrecked. So it has it's uses for sure, but i wouldn't base my purchase soley on the report.
