Carfax
- Thread starter LI Disco
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It will find accident reports, True Mileage history, if it has maintenance history at dealer or independent LR shops ... the important things
Carfax is only as accurate as the info put in. It could have been in 10 accidents and if the repair shops did not report it to Carfax, you would never know. It's not mandatory. I think Carfax is more of a marketing tool than a actual reflection of the history of the vehicle.
Only a good pre-purchase inspection is going to give you what you need.
True they do have a great marketing program, but being in my line of work for 20 years, it's not the repair shops it's law enforcement that records accident.
Here's some light reading for you:
They have three primary sources: State title agencies, police reports, and repair shops. The title agencies send them owner history and report branded titles. The police reports inform them of accidents or theft. The repair shops handle everything else.
What's this mean in practice?
The title reports are pretty darn good since they simply copy what's on the vehicle's title. It may not capture every single change of ownership, but Carfax will definitely tell you if the title is branded salvage/reconstructed/flood etc.
The rest of it though? Well, that's subject to a big helping of luck, cleverness, and good old human error.
I'll start with the big big problem with used cars that Carfax is supposed to solve: accidents. In my experience dealing with used cars they're almost never reported by anyone but police departments. If someone gets in a wreck on the Pennsylvania Turnpike and the PA State Police respond, you can be sure the accident is going on the Carfax. How about the smaller police departments? That's a crapshoot. Officer decides not to file a report? No accident on Carfax. Or if he does file a report, but the Wampum P.D. stores their accident records in shoeboxes stacked inside their holding cell that hasn't seen an occupant since the Ford administration, Carfax is never finding out about this accident. Only computerized records are shared with Carfax, and the detail of those varies by police department. Some will report the severity of the wreck and whether the airbags were deployed. Some won't.
But wait, there's more! When the Wampum P.D. finally does computerize its records, they'll suddenly report everything to Carfax. I've seen this happen several times before- someone buys a used car with a clean Carfax, and two years later suddenly it's got a wreck on the history from a year before they bought it. It'll be noted on the Carfax entry by the nice little disclaimer "Carfax started reporting this information on (whatever date the records were
Doesn't the body shop report the repairs from the accident to Carfax? Usually not. The majority of body shops don't report any records to Carfax at all, and when they do, it'll say something like "Vehicle serviced. Front bumper, fascia, headlights, grille, and Johnson rod replaced." What it doesn't say is "Accident Reported." Carfax reports this as a repair, not an accident.
And then there's the accidents that go completely unreported. If you run your car off the road in the middle of the night and wrap it around a tree, call Uncle Clem to haul it out for you and have him fix it in his backyard, neither the police or Carfax have any idea the car was ever wrecked. Your car may be three different colors now, held together with Bondo, duct tape, and whatever bits and pieces were lying around Clem's garage floor, but it's got a spotlessly clean Carfax- and when you go to sell it on Craigslist a few years later, advertising it as "One Owner! Clean Carfax!" is absolutely the truth.
That brings us to the last part- repair shops. Most larger shops, dealerships included, report their repairs to Carfax for ease of record keeping. Some will send over an itemized list of what was repaired, while some will only say that the vehicle was in the shop. Most smaller shops don't report anything. This means you cannot rely on a Carfax history to determNow here's where it gets interesting- reports from shops are where Carfax receives most of its information about mileage. Some of this comes from state DMV records as well, but many states do not share their odometer readings with Carfax. What's this mean for you? The mileage records are only as good as the people reporting them. If you take your car in for a 45,000 mile service and the technician types in 54,000 miles by mistake, Carfax will flag the car as a potential odometer rollback when the tech records your 50,000 mile service a few months later. Here's another common scenario: a mechanic puts three or four repair records into the computer at the same time, but accidentally types the mileage of the '97 Camry into the entry for the '08 Mustang. Whoops!
Three words - PRE PURCHASE INSPECTION!!!
It's a fucking Land Rover for God's sake. Have you learned nothing in your 105 posts?
That is all well and good, but it's also like saying don't ever cross the street cause you might get hit by a car.
While "clean carfax" is not a good reason to buy a car, what does show up can be a good reason to not buy a car.
When I'm hunting, the unlimited for 30 days deal is a great way to weed Craigslist.
I would also only use it as a tool NOT to buy a car. I was only responding to what sounded like a very bold statement of it's virtues:
"It will find accident reports, True Mileage history, if it has maintenance history at dealer or independent LR shops ... the important things."
FWIW.<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->
"It will find accident reports, True Mileage history, if it has maintenance history at dealer or independent LR shops ... the important things."
FWIW.<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->
It can be useful the other way around as well.
I bought an old ML in September in part because it was dealer serviced every 5-8k for 175k.
There was also an xterra I considered. It had 250k, but was anally serviced. The carfax was like 3 pages long as the thing was at the dealer like clockwork every 3k.
I bought an old ML in September in part because it was dealer serviced every 5-8k for 175k.
There was also an xterra I considered. It had 250k, but was anally serviced. The carfax was like 3 pages long as the thing was at the dealer like clockwork every 3k.
It really depends. It won't tell you shit about my trucks cause I do everything myself.The truck in my member trucks photo hit a deer and needed a core support, welded in half the damn wing extension( I call it an apron) needed all kind of shit that I pulled off a truck from behind my barn and welded in myself. Now my kid rolled that bitch at least 3 times into a corn field and I could put it back together again and carfax wont show shit.
But the truck I just got it showed that the cats were replaced not long ago,so I thought great never owned a disco without a cat code in it. Well they were shitty aftermarket cats and one of them is fucked. So carfax might or might not be worth the cost.I think it's a system run by insurance companies to benefit insurance companies.
Since this thread is already halfway derailed...
All this buttsex talk reminded me of this picture my wife took and sent me; I.e. this is from a women's bathroom.
Attachments
I don't know who's more fucked up. Your wife for taking the picture in the first place, or you for saving it on your phone for god-knows-what twisted reason.
Your sick dude!
Your sick dude!
Peas in a pod eh?
Also, I saved it to post on the league page when my fantasy football team misses the playoffs again.
Also, I saved it to post on the league page when my fantasy football team misses the playoffs again.