"Major accident" not appearing on CarFax report? (USA, auction, damage)

[Avantiguy]

And a minor bump-up on my 2005 LaCrosse showed up at trade-in time. A woman back into my front bumper in a parking lot doing about $400.00 damage. The dealer wanted to use the Carfax to negotiate a trade in about $2,000.00 less, informing me: "People won't want to buy a car with a Carfax report of damage." I countered back that I had pictures from the accident scene as well as the bodyshop estimate and I would be happy to confirm the details with any potential purchaser. Furthermore, since I was about to purchase my 9th car from this dealership in 17 years, I told them if they wanted to keep me as a customer, this Carfax had better not play into such a lowball figure.


I found it funny that everyone was in such a tiz about a Carfax report that resulted from very minor damage. They should have been concerned over the mechanical condition of the car (slipping transmission and 2 quart every 1,000 mile oil loss) instead of this stupid Carfax.

Mr. Bill
Hamlet, NC

[luzianne]

I don't trust Carfax, because I bought my 2005 Jeep new. My husband bought a new truck last fall and we considered trading in the Jeep. They ran a Carfax and said that it had been involved in a collision to the back of the vehicle involving the back bumper. Huh? I have been the only owner of the vehicle and it has not been involved in an accident. So when I go to sell it, is it going to be a problem that that is showing up on the Carfax? And how do I get it removed? How do I prove there was no accident?

[43north87west]

Originally Posted by luzianne

I don't trust Carfax, because I bought my 2005 Jeep new. My husband bought a new truck last fall and we considered trading in the Jeep. They ran a Carfax and said that it had been involved in a collision to the back of the vehicle involving the back bumper. Huh? I have been the only owner of the vehicle and it has not been involved in an accident. So when I go to sell it, is it going to be a problem that that is showing up on the Carfax? And how do I get it removed? How do I prove there was no accident?

Ever leave the car with your husband when you went out of town?

You should see if you can get a copy of the accident report attached to the Carfax entry, to find out what the deal is.

What is interesting, is that US vehicles have a check digit in the VIN (actually most cars do). Which means it's virtually impossible that your VIN was transposed in place of another Jeep. Your VIN would probably show up as invalid in most systems that use VINs to track anything. That's why I'm curious about where the report came from and how it got attached to your car.

Or maybe the dealer was just BSing you too. Maybe they saw a scratch on the rear bumper or something, and decided to bluff you about it. Did you see the Carfax?

[Pretzelogik]

Useless get a pre-purchase inspection.

[burdell]

Originally Posted by MustangEater82

I had a car that was in a decent wreck, almost totaled it, but didn't, never showed up.

I've heard of a vehicle that was totaled by the insurance company, repaired, and showed up for sale with nothing bad on the CarFax.

[autopi1]

Carfax is the best thing to happen to used car dealers since they learned how to roll back odometers! Dealers are knowingly selling accident and frame damaged vehicles with a clean carfax report. And when you sell a vehicle they used the Carfax showing a previous accident and deduct more than the repairs for your trad in. What a scam!

[JohnZ963]

I've gotten the impression that many dealers report maintenance records to carfax in order to increase the value or supposed value of cars they could later be selling, but body shops (especially dealer body shops) don't report collision/paint repairs to carfax for the same reason. I've seen thousands of carfax reports. Most collisions show up from police reports. Rarely do I see them reported by the repair facility. Occasionally it will say something like "vehicle repaired after a collision - an inspection is recommended" but that is rare.

[luzianne]

Originally Posted by 43north87west

Ever leave the car with your husband when you went out of town?

You should see if you can get a copy of the accident report attached to the Carfax entry, to find out what the deal is.

What is interesting, is that US vehicles have a check digit in the VIN (actually most cars do). Which means it's virtually impossible that your VIN was transposed in place of another Jeep. Your VIN would probably show up as invalid in most systems that use VINs to track anything. That's why I'm curious about where the report came from and how it got attached to your car.

Or maybe the dealer was just BSing you too. Maybe they saw a scratch on the rear bumper or something, and decided to bluff you about it. Did you see the Carfax?

No, I didn't see the Carfax. I guess I should check into it. My kids have used my Jeep from time to time, but they've never had it long enough that they could have wrecked it, gotten it fixed, and gotten it back to me without me knowing about it!

[Drover]

Originally Posted by hoffdano

Tiny but important semantic difference - nothing is really reported to Carfax. Instead Carfax scours publicly available data sources. Police reports, title changes, inspections, etc. No police department sends its data to Carfax.

Last year I bought a car that was meticulously dealer-maintained. How do I know? Because all of the dealer service records showed up on the Carfax report. I didn't even need receipts from the previous owner -- I just keep the Carfax report as my proof of prior maintenance. This leads me to believe that surely some data is reported to Carfax because I can't imagine the dealer service records are a matter of public record.

[aktuccar]

I bought a car with clean carfax and the major accident showed up after 6 months. I argued with carfax but they do not care at all! It is best to have pre purchase inspection by certified mechanics.