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by Joe Gokaho 2010.01.29 D5
http://www.komonews.com/news/consumer/5730906.html
I've seen many Carfax commercials on TV lately. It seems to be so promising, a good source for a complete car history.
Many of the used car dealers were eager to offer the reports, I didn't get it. Why would they do that. All the reports have "perfect records".
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I dig into the history of my family cars to see how much of that information is capture by Carfax. Well, it missed a lot of important info.
Combining my personal experience and the the findings from the above article: There is the beef
1. Vehicle registration history. (salvage title for example)
2. Accident history - incomplete, or non-existence . Insurance companies don't send data to Carfax, many law enforcement don't sent data to Carfax either.
3. If the vehicle is totaled, there may be an entry say "water damage" or "major frame repairs"
4. The maintenance records are incomplete, some dealers send data to Carfax, some don't. The maintenance records were on my vehicles were incomplete.
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What's is my conclusions?
1. If there is no accident history, be very skeptical.
2. If there is accident history, have a professional check out the repairs - may be it was only involved in a minor accident; it's not a nail in the coffin. A friend ran on a car he had for 10 years, 2 minor accidents, 1 major with frame damage. All had filed insurance claims and -non of them showed up in the Carfax report.
3. Mileage history/locations are useful to assess usage pattern.
Is it worth that $20?? May be if you use that with a professional inspection..
