Carfax accuracy?

[Chris]

I really have my doubts after doing some personal investigation on a vehicle I almost bought. I was looking at a 4Runner in Ohio and was going to fly out to pick it up. I had the dealer fax me the carfax, which showed a very thorough maintenance history. LUCKILY this vehice had been serviced at a toyota dealer from day 1, and if not, none of this maintenance history would be available. The carfax listed the dealer's name and phone number. The sales person I was working with contacted the dealer and sent me the entire maintenance history. There was one entry for bodywork, 4 wheel alignment, and "polish shop" work. I called the service manager at this dealer and after some hesitation on his part, I was finally able to get more info. on this bodywork.

Come to find out it was a stolen/recovered vehicle and had front and left side damage. Now, who knows how much damage this really was, but if it took me 15 minutes to find out, why would it not be listed on the carfax!!


Just a warning... and if you can find a vehicle with a dealer listed in the carfax- call and ask for the entire maintenance history!

[Apoc]

Well... you never actually saw the original Carfax report yourself. It seems possible that the selling dealer could have altered the report before they faxed it, hoping you wouldn't figure it out.

I can't imagine a car being reported stolen and Carfax not picking up on it. I could see damage not being included, I've seen that in the past, but stolen? That's a pretty big one.

[NTIman]

In my experience from having to get a carfax report for the certified used cars ar the Toyota dealership, they've damn near been useless. I'm sure I'll hear some flak for this, but thats just my opinion.

A good,thorough inspection of the car in question will reveal almost anything that has been done to the car, and a hell of a lot that will never make it onto a carfax report.

I'm sure others have had reports tell them a lot about a car, but I haven't.

[Chris]

Well... you never actually saw the original Carfax report yourself. It seems possible that the selling dealer could have altered the report before they faxed it, hoping you wouldn't figure it out.

I can't imagine a car being reported stolen and Carfax not picking up on it. I could see damage not being included, I've seen that in the past, but stolen? That's a pretty big one.

I don't see how they could alter the carfax- it shows a clear title for the vehicle and lists all the areas checked. In fact, here is the actualy one, listed right under the car's for sale details:

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.carfax.com/cfm/ccc_DisplayHistoryRpt.cfm?partner=DVW_1&vin=JTEBT17R538005271">http://www.carfax.com/cfm/ccc_DisplayHi ... R538005271</a><!-- m -->


Also, carfax doesn't even list a category of "stolen vehicle" as one of their checkpoints- which I find very strange. This was also a toyota certified vehicle and even if carfax didn't pick up on the stolen vehicle record, you think toyota would check into previous dealer maintenance!

[white_2kgt]

Don't they do like a 1,000 buy back guarantee? I would have gotten something in writing about it being stolen then made carfax give me the grand extra for the car.

[BLAIR]

car fax isnt accurrate at all. People can total a car and pay to fix it themselfs and it will never show up. Alot of people choose to do this because they dont want a bad carfax to hurt resale. I know of alot of cars with slight to serious damage that has been fixed and has a clean carfax.

[John]

Carfax is only as good as the information it can tap - and the used auto market, there are MANY ways to skirt it. As Blair noted, accidents won't register on Carfax reports unless the insurance company buys back the totalled vehicle. But even small insurance companies have found ways around reporting the true salvage title to Carfax. Carfax does tap into most (if not all) state databases and will note title transfers, emission failures (yes, my car had these on my Carfax report), etc. That's one reason why I didn't report my accident on the official Cali form when I got t-boned. Am I being dishonest? Partially yes. Oh well...

[Evan]

wow, theft recovery not showing up on carfax is pretty surprising. I know that some accidents dont show up since they dont go through official records, but a theft recovery is something that I thought would show up on official records.

The accident of my wrx (~$6.5k damage) never showed up, but I bought a totalled/rebuilt 240sx that did show on the carfax.

[Apoc]

I don't see how they could alter the carfax- it shows a clear title for the vehicle and lists all the areas checked. In fact, here is the actualy one, listed right under the car's for sale details:

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.carfax.com/cfm/ccc_DisplayHistoryRpt.cfm?partner=DVW_1&vin=JTEBT17R538005271">http://www.carfax.com/cfm/ccc_DisplayHi ... R538005271</a><!-- m -->

I misunderstood, I think... I thought you received a copy via fax and they could have altered the paper before they sent it.

The tricky thing about Carfax is they only guarantee that they show everything reported. As others have said, there are a lot of things that never get reported so even if there was a major problem there's no guarantee Carfax would cover it unless you can prove the information was there to be obtained.

FWIW, I wouldn't buy any vehicle listed as "Sold at Auction" but maybe I'm just paranoid.

[Evan]

FWIW, I wouldn't buy any vehicle listed as "Sold at Auction" but maybe I'm just paranoid.

a lot of leased vehicles are sold at auction. so the key is just to look at when it was auctioned. auctioned at 2-4 years old it was likely just a leased vehicle.

although those may be turned into CPO vehicles more these days...

[Apoc]

This was listed as a lease so that makes sense but I just question why it was auctioned with the CPO market as prolific as it is these days.

[Ginger]

CPO?

[HAULN-SS]

certified pre owned

[ViPER1313]

fwiw, I have read stories from people working at junkyards junkyards running carfaxes on some of the 1/2 clips they keep around, and many of them coming back with clean records 8) .