Better break out your carfax if you're buying a used car this year

[hatersaurusrex]

http://www.weather.com/news/hurricane-sandy-cars-20121231

[Indygenerallee]

Carfax is a great tool, I run my grandfathers used car lot, and I run the VIN inspector program on my android phone and I have Carfax linked to it that way I can run the history on any vehicle while I am right there at the auction or if someone is wanting to trade one in, Very usefull tool!

[Cooter]

Of course, most of these vehicles will be an insurance claim therefore, it shows up on Carfax.




However, if they were dried out by their owners and NOT TURNED IN to the insurance company, then Carfax is useless.

[chargerman69]

Looks like a old white and red ford in pic 7, sadly theres few classic's on copart.com

[TruckDriver]

I will NEVER trust Car Fax. It is only as good as what actually gets reported to them. I have a friend that bought a 2006 Tahoe that the car fax said it never been in a accident. Turns out he took it in for some chipping paint, and the body shop discovered $5,000 of hidden damage under the outer sheet metal. He sued the car dealership, and they were well known, and they got shut down. They apparently were buying cars they were easy fixes, then redoing them, and not reporting the accident damage to car fax. I have since heard of other horror stories like this. My 2001 Ram "Car Fax" said everything was good and clean, but I am almost positive the my truck was a stolen & recovered truck cause of some of the dings and scratches on the drivers door, and broken dash cover. I should say though, the dealership I bought my truck from never lied to me about anything wrong about my truck, and even pointed all the minor problems to me. I would recommend them, and buy from that dealship again as I am very pleased with them. It comes down to buyer beware.

[Cooter]

I will NEVER trust car fax. It is only as good as what actually gets reported to them. It comes down to buyer beware.

Couldn't have said it better...Wonder if there's a car forum out there where these cars/trucks are posted and folks can help protect people from themselves buying these turds as well?

[Indygenerallee]

Yeah you can get burned, but I use it as a guide not for being the whole truth, I am ASE / I-CAR Cert. and looking them over and having experience to know what to look for helps to weed out potential turds.

[skip68]

That's what I was gonna say.  Use it as a guide and then inspect it from there.   

[twodko]

If an accident has been reported to insurance CarFax is OK I guess. If no report......buyer beware. 

[69rtse4spd]

At the Dodge dealer two weeks ago, talking to one of the mechanics. He was working on a '12 lime green Jeep, that a used car lot about 30 miles away bought out of Texas. I commented on the fine dirt under the hood, he said it was in a flood at the dealer ship down there. Seams the water was about 6-8 inches from the top of the roof on the inside. All the used dealer wanted them to do was get running. He said, when he fired it up a bunch of water came out of the muffler. Might just drive over there & see if it still there just for sh*ts & laughs.

[Silver R/T]

Of course, most of these vehicles will be an insurance claim therefore, it shows up on Carfax.




However, if they were dried out by their owners and NOT TURNED IN to the insurance company, then Carfax is useless.

Exactly, carfax is waste of money. There are a few ways around it.