Red08

Several years ago, I had about $500 damage on a company vehicle. Rather than report to my employer, I took care of it myself at a local body shop. I also bought a new Honda Accord. It was only two weeks old, and a deer ran into the Accord when my wife was driving it. It was a $2,500 claim, and repaired at a local body shop. A year or so after the two accidents, I looked them up on Carfax. Neither of them were listed as having ANY damage. It really makes me wonder how accurate Carfax really is.

Aerovette

Nope. Not in the least. The shop that had my car said it was up to me if I wanted the damage reported.

Fcal

I'm pissed at my shop. I had to get the rear fascia re painted due to some small damage and they reported it as damage to rear.
Sometimes they report crap and sometimes they don't.

Glennm27

Car fax only lists incidents reported by insurance companies. If you took care of your $500 incident on your own at a local body shop how would you expect CarFax to know about it.

Corvette ED

Carfax gets 95% of their damage reports from police reports. If you didn't have an accident report filed by the police it won't show up. Some shops and most new car dealers give Carfax access to their service records.

speedlink

I would have to respectfully refute your police report theory. If that was true, then why do some carfax reports show oil changes and other dealer maintenance? Thats obviously not a police involved situation.

AORoads

My take on it is as said above: it's only as good as the reporting. And if the reporting isn't universal meaning all-inclusive, then the report is of lesser value. But, I combine it with an AutoCheck, and in the case of Corvette the VIS from a dealer svce. dept. For other makes, you may have to rely on an "expert"---someone who knows what the car should look like and how it should perform because they work on it every day.

I saw some interesting references on CF where potential buyers were looking under the car at nuts that were painted to see if the paint was gone and the sharp edges were slightly rounded. Their logic was that some of these shouldn't have to be touched and if they were, something happened (changed, swapped out, replaced, etc.). And actually, I've seen a Corvette tech going over a car for me in Michigan do approximately the same thing and that was many years ago. Of course the car only had 6K miles on it, but it was nine years old.

Kevin A Jones

I trust Carfax as much as I trust any other entity that's dependent on gathering information reported by multiple sources regardless whether it's accurate or not.

air86

When you take your car in for servicing they report that to carfax as well. Well when i pulled my carfax for my car they did. I ended up getting the unlimited reports for a month because I was looking at used cars at one point and so i was curious. All my cars i had owned had service records reported.

Marcho Polo

almost 20 years ago, I purchased a 1985 Corvette that showed to have 68,000 miles on it. This model still had the old black numbers that rolled over, and was not tied into any computer. I did not do a carfax on the car as it was not really a whole lot of money to begin with (maybe 6 or 7k)... but later on, I did see a carfax and found that someone replaced the cluster with one that had lower miles, and it reported 'rollback detected'. The car had over 100,000 miles at the time I purchased it, and it had the Texas safety inspection done a few days before I purchased it, so I figured it was likely the dealer that sold it to me. Upon seeing this, I contacted the used car dealer that sold it to me, and he denied knowing anything about it. But a few days later, carfax mysteriously had the high mileage events removed and no rollback was mentioned any more.

Even when events are there, it seems it's not a problem to remove them.

I also was the second owner of my GS, and carfax had trouble determining the number of owners between the trade in that was out of state, and subsequent auction, and then dealer selling it here... for some reason they showed me as the third owner. I emailed them and told them when I actually bought it and that I was the second owner, and they replied with something like, ok we fixed it. And then I checked, and they have it as two owner now.

While I think it's a good tool to use when purchasing a car, it has to be taken with a grain of salt and understood that it's not perfect.

Kent1999

This. As I always say: Carfax isn't the END of your pre-purchase due diligence, but it is a valuable START of that process. It would be utterly foolish to rely on only ONE source of information during your pre-purchase.

Nope, CARFAX isn't 100% reliable, but I damn sure wouldn't buy a car without seeing it as *part* of my research.

roadbike56

Just because Carfax and/or Autocheck don't report minor repairs paid for outside of the insurance system doesn't mean the documents are worthless. They are valuable for what they report. However, minor accidents, repaired outside of the insurance system and don't have a police report may not be found in Carfax or Autocheck. SO WHAT.
Is there anyone here who honestly believes that all new cars are virgins never seeing the body repair person before being sold. Wow have you got a lot to learn.
IMHO it only matters if the damage is so severe that it could affect functionality. I'm not going to get excited because somebody backed into a mailbox and had to have a dent removed.

Vetteman Jack

I use it as a resource, but I realize that not all accidents are reported to them and therefore the CarFax may be incomplete. It always pays to have the car thoroughly inspected before a purchase is made.

Sixgun95

Hate Carfax! Car was in for a warranty repair last year, noticed it showed as "damage" on the carfax. Dealer owns 50% of this issue for reporting it as such. In any event, I emailed them, had to send the dealer receipt to prove it wasn't damage and it was removed. Fairly painless, but why! Seriously flawed system, as they say garbage in - garbage out. I was lucky enough to catch it now, this would of really sucked if first noticed during a sale. They treat it like a credit report, they are simply not there yet.

JDSC8VETTE

I had a new Audi that was rear ended with over 4 thousand in damages. My Audi dealer did the collision work and it went through the other drivers insurance. After I traded the car two years later on another Audi it was listed with a clean carfax. I checked the carfax myself and it showed all the service work along with the mileage when it was done. There was no mention of any accident or repair. Like many bull crap stuff today carfax is just another tool that gets abused and used improperly.

hcvone

CarFax is just a tool, you could total a car, if your shop does not report it, most do not, the car will show 100% clean CarFax.

Carrot Top

I use Carfax but don't expect it to be 100% accurate. I have purchased a car that was clean to find out years later there was a delayed report added to it.

gliot1

Carfax is a tool that only benefits car dealers it seems. Make sure you check your Carfax periodically. It is very inaccurate it seems. I had a car where tge door was backed into, it it was properly repaired. $3k damage. Carfax had it as extensive damage, towed from scene, all untrue. It fell upon md to fike a dispute and proof before tgey would correct, which I did. A year later I went to trade and one dealer was knocking off $7k on the trade. Needless to say I didnt, but dealers love this. I am unclear how if you have a mechanical issue repaired properly, no lost value, but any body work done properly and it can kill a deal. Before Carfax an appraiser would look at a car and if fixed properly, no lost value. I have learned, if the damage on a car is under $2k, eat and pay for it as most bodymen wont put it to Carfax if you pay rather than an insurance company.

Kenny94945

No, if nothing reported, due diligence is needed.
Yes, if something reported, leading one to the exact area to inspect.

FWIW Still awaiting insurance industry to recognize Car Fax et al as a detriment to value
and start realizing diminished value is a large monetary issue.

kennyjames21

Obviously carfax isn't going to have all the information on all cars, so when you check one, don't assume that because nothing is listed that nothing ever happened to the vehicle. At the same time, it might have info on the vehicle you are considering that will affect your decision, so it's definitely a useful tool, just don't assume it knows all about every single car.