Carfax.......almost useless

[The70RT]

Carfax? They are useless. If you fix your own car who is Carfax. I guess the only way Carfax is notified is through a police report? I bought 3 vehicles in the last 4 years that were only 2-3 years old and found they was in an accident and Carfax showed notta. I get hit from behind other persons insurance covered it and I got a new bumper and put it on myself and boom Carfax shows it. I guess if you buy a lease vehicle the bastards don't turn it in. I got them at Briggs. I was done with them then he ole lady goes and buys the 3rd one over lunch one day......well not actually but drove it back to work then by the time I got home she was set on it. I mentioned it but they said maybe a repaint on the hood at one time but I noticed later alignment marks on the hood and fender and newer headlights (date coded) None were a problem but still. Does body shops and insurance company's required to turn it in or who is?? By the way does anyone know what amount of oil consumption is acceptable under Chevy and Dodge's warranty's? Thanks for reading my rant.

[mikepmcs]

Sorry for your troubles, but you hit the nail on the head.  CARFAX doesn't always show everything.  Especially if the car hasn't been registered for some time. (ie: 2003 car, I bought it in 2007 after 4 years of sitting or whomever driving/damaging/auction/blah blah blah blah, new owner knows nothing about the car since 2003, if that makes sense)

I can tell you this for sure, body shops do not report this(i'm a body shop collision tech and besides the body work, I normally do the paperwork and deal with insurance companies) I can try to find out though.

Don't know the consumption but can tell you ford says a quart or more is ok between normal oil changes

Don't know if this will help but you can follow numerous links on this wiki thread.  Did see a class action suit in there

In a 2006 class action lawsuit, West v. CARFAX, Inc., the plaintiff claimed that CARFAX violated consumer protection laws by not disclosing the limitations of their service, specifically their inability to check accident records in 23 states in the U.S. while stating that their database contains information from all 50 states[24]. The lawsuit was settled in May 2007 in the Trumbull County Common Pleas Court in Warren, Ohio[25][26]. Carfax spokesman Larry Gamache said more than 10 million consumers were affected. The company asserts that it has major accident information from all 50 states and it backs up its claim with a buyback guarantee.

Bet if you follow that lawsuit you will find the nitty gritty of what and what not carfax does.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carfax_(company)

v/r
Mike

[mikepmcs]

more stuff here

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cars/new-cars/news/2007/01/carfax-sued-over-vehicle-history-reports/overview/0107_carfax_sued_over_vehicle_history_reports.htm

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/10/carfax_facts.html

[Silver R/T]

ya Carfax usually doesnt know half of the things that happened to the vehicle youre buying.

[68charger383]

I had a similar experience with a car I bought coming in as clear, but the car had an obvious accident.

[Chargen69]

they also make mountains out of mole hills, my truck had been keyed on one side (no police report) and I turned it in under the vandalism, fire, theft part, when I went to sell the truck three years later, carfax showed "ride side damage"

[JrJohnston]

CarFax pulls info from the insurance data base,if no claim is filed it wont show up.And on the lease vehicle ,the leasing company is self insured so they do not get turned into the insurance companies.

[41husk]

I think it is a good service, not totaly reliable, but a resource when buying a late model car.  10 years ago you could have a bought a vehicle that had been demolished, flooded, burnt, etc. with no possible way of finding this out.  Now I think you have a resource to help eliminate some doubt.  It shouldn't be taken as the last word.  I think buyer beware should always be the best policy.  I have personaly never used car fax, I either buy old mopars that I know are projects or new vehicles (some have ended up being bigger projects than the old ones)  If I were buying a used car and the sellers story sounded fishy, or something on vehicle raised concern I might use the service.

[SnoPro440]

I think the service is a joke.  I lemon lawed my 2005 Ram SRT-10 and ran a car fax on it about 6 months later.  It showed the title as being free and clear.  Not sure how that works, but I would think the title would have to have some kind of mark on it or something stating that it was returned under the lemon law.  Someone is going to end up with/ or did end up with a transmission eating SRT-10.

[Troy]

Carfax also shows the previous owners and mileage from DMV records (not in all states I know but it does around here). One really nice part about that is buying a used car from a dealer - you can tell how long they've had it on the lot and can work a much better deal if it's been there a few months. It is not a guarantee that you won't get a car that's had damage before but any information is better than no information. I've never paid for a Carfax so I'm all for free information when it *helps* me make a decision. Don't they have an accident guarantee or something like that?

Troy

[471_Magnum]

I'm not a fan of carfax.

I traded a car in a few years ago and the dealer produced a carfax on it showing the transmission had been repaired. The reality was I had the dealer perform scheduled transmission service (flush and fill).

Later I traded one of my parents cars and a dealer produced a report showing an accident report from the previous ownership. We had a Carfax run when we bought the car and it was clean. Meanwhile the car had been in an accident while my parents owned it, but there was no record.

Other than the history of ownership, I consider CarFax to be unreliable.

[The70RT]

Carfax also shows the previous owners and mileage from DMV records (not in all states I know but it does around here). One really nice part about that is buying a used car from a dealer - you can tell how long they've had it on the lot and can work a much better deal if it's been there a few months. It is not a guarantee that you won't get a car that's had damage before but any information is better than no information. I've never paid for a Carfax so I'm all for free information when it *helps* me make a decision. Don't they have an accident guarantee or something like that?

Troy

Do they....I would sure like to know.

[Old Moparz]

I had originally thought Carfax was a decent idea, but it is flawed based on the same reasons others mentioned. I used it once to check on the Ford F-150 I had bought because it was a southern vehicle & I wanted to see if it had ever been a flood car. I logged in & got the "Free Carfax Report" they offer like a sucker. The report came back, "Warning! The vehicle you are inquiring about has a total of 3 prior issues." (or something like that) So I paid the fee & found that the 3 issues were 3 title transfers & nothing to worry about.    The original transfer to the first dealership from Ford, the transfer to the first owner who bought it, & the transfer to the dealership that took it in trade where I had seen it.

Deceptive advertising by the use of phony scare tactics in my opinion.