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Old 09-06-2013, 09:49 AM
 
Location: Michigan
29,391 posts, read 55,427,127 times
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This is good news for me about Carfax being investigated and not Carmax. Planning on buying this 2011 Ford which still in factory warranty.

2011 Ford F250 XL in Nashville, TN- 9521051 at carmax.com
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Old 09-06-2013, 10:12 AM
 
837 posts, read 2,069,853 times
Reputation: 441
Quote:
Originally Posted by edwardvanderbosch View Post
Maybe they don't tell you if car was in an accident. We bought a car from CAR MAX the carfax was clean no accidents REPORTED to us at time of purchase! It had been hit and repaired so as to not flag repair on carfax report. Never trust carfax as fact of vehicle being accident free.
Just to be clear, you can't blame CarMax if they rely on CarFax for a car's history.

Granted, mechanics can probably tell if a car has been repaired, but the knock that I have against CarMax is that because they don't specialize in one brand, their mechanics aren't fully knowledgable on the intricacies of each car.

Side story: I had a strange issue where my driver-side car door activity (e.g. opening & closing) would not trigger activity with the interior/exterior lights. It turns out that the specific door jamb button was not connected properly - previous owner had removed his/her custom anti-theft system and did not reconnect the doors properly. CarMax mechanics could not figure out this simple wiring issue, but a Pioneer vendor (who is used to custom electrical wiring) was able to figure this out.
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Old 09-06-2013, 10:30 AM
 
33,387 posts, read 34,659,590 times
Reputation: 20028
Quote:
Originally Posted by burdell View Post
I know of at least one vehicle that had been totaled by an insurance company yet was repaired and was for sale with a clean CarFax report. CarFax has changed their TV ads to warn that nobody knows everything about a car.
yeah, "totaled" doesnt mean what it used to. in the old days a car that was totaled was sent off to the junk yard to have useable parts pulled and sold and the rest scrapped. these days a minor fender bender can be enough to total a car even though said car is still quite useable. my old 83 grand marquis was that way. the only damage it had was some very minor sheet metal damage, a slightly bent bumper, a broken tail light housing, and the energy absorbing ram on the left rear was compressed. the insurance company wanted to total the car and i wouldnt let them. they ended up paying for the damages.
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Old 09-06-2013, 10:56 AM
 
837 posts, read 2,069,853 times
Reputation: 441
Quote:
Originally Posted by rbohm View Post
yeah, "totaled" doesnt mean what it used to. in the old days a car that was totaled was sent off to the junk yard to have useable parts pulled and sold and the rest scrapped. these days a minor fender bender can be enough to total a car even though said car is still quite useable. my old 83 grand marquis was that way. the only damage it had was some very minor sheet metal damage, a slightly bent bumper, a broken tail light housing, and the energy absorbing ram on the left rear was compressed. the insurance company wanted to total the car and i wouldnt let them. they ended up paying for the damages.
With modern computers and better engineering, can a "totaled" car be rehabbed to the point where it is 99% as good as the original? I know that in the past, buying a previously totaled car meant asking for trouble. However, akin to today's refurbished electronics, I have noticed that genuinely good repair jobs can allow buyers to snag really good deals on otherwise expensive items. Thoughts?
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Old 09-06-2013, 11:30 AM
 
33,387 posts, read 34,659,590 times
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Originally Posted by Comp625 View Post
With modern computers and better engineering, can a "totaled" car be rehabbed to the point where it is 99% as good as the original? I know that in the past, buying a previously totaled car meant asking for trouble. However, akin to today's refurbished electronics, I have noticed that genuinely good repair jobs can allow buyers to snag really good deals on otherwise expensive items. Thoughts?
thats part of it, but in the old days it took a lot to total a car. these days not so much. it depends on how much the cost of the damage is compared to the value of the car in question.
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Old 09-06-2013, 01:14 PM
 
Location: Houston, TX
2,052 posts, read 5,842,141 times
Reputation: 1298
Quote:
Originally Posted by edwardvanderbosch View Post
Maybe they don't tell you if car was in an accident. We bought a car from CAR MAX the carfax was clean no accidents REPORTED to us at time of purchase! It had been hit and repaired so as to not flag repair on carfax report. Never trust carfax as fact of vehicle being accident free.
True. A friend bought a year old Pilot and only found out a couple of years later that it had been in a pretty severe accident. It was a good repair, but if CarMax did their complete inspection of the vehicle, they had to know it was damaged as it was pretty easy for the mechanic to see when it was on the lift. But it was sold to them as an accident free clean Carfax vehicle. They traded it on a new vehicle right after that.
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Old 09-06-2013, 01:56 PM
 
Location: Apple Valley Calif
7,474 posts, read 22,823,943 times
Reputation: 5682
Don't know about other parts of the country, but the local So Calif CarMax I am very familiar with doesn't waste their time to repair damaged cars for sale. They don't need to, their volume is so great they only keep the cream. It's not unusual for CM to sell 30 plus cars in one day, and everything they sell comes with the only five day return policy in the industry.
Every Monday they hold an auction for the cars that don't past muster or are too old to put on their lot, or cars damaged in an accident. Every Monday they sell well over one hundred cars in a dealer only auction. Any car not in top shape goes to that auction, and then ends up on the corner used car lot.. Small dealers come from near and far to purchase cars at that auction.
When you move that kind of volume, there is no time or need to do more than minor repair.
I have done huge amounts of business with them over the last three years and am pretty familiar with their operation, and in my experience they are a first class operation in every way...
I can't vouch for other CM's in other states who may operate differently..
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Old 09-06-2013, 03:04 PM
 
Location: Texas
5,717 posts, read 18,797,051 times
Reputation: 11223
Looks to be an almost new truck. For a close to 3 year old truck it has only 18,000 miles on it according to the listing, that's a truck somebody didn't drive much. Decent price on it too. I think ya done good on this one John.
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Old 09-06-2013, 04:20 PM
 
48,505 posts, read 96,551,406 times
Reputation: 18301
they just get the state records of accidents on a VIN nuber of the car. Accident not investigated then no report of damage available. you can do the same thing at DMV.
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Old 09-06-2013, 05:43 PM
 
Location: Wicker Park, Chicago
4,789 posts, read 14,706,694 times
Reputation: 1966
If you buy a salvage title car you should pay salvage title prices. My 99 Civic HX M/T is a TX salvage title car but it has given me almost no problems since buying it Nov 2007.
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