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I would google "carfax not accurate" and be prepared for an eyeful.. one of the web sites it is only accurate 60 percent of the time..
So? Does 60% accuracy mean it's not a valuable tool while buying a car, given it's applied correctly?
It's been said before in this thread, CARFAX is not the almighty god of car history, it's not and never could be 100% accurate, that doesn't mean it can't be a useful tool, looking for a car, you just can't be a moron, look at a car with obvious problems online and blindly buy it because "The CARFAX didn't state any accidents".
You take the car on a drive, you check underneath, the oil, the cooling so on and so forth, and you check the CARFAX, in case it brings up nastyness you can't tell from a visual of mechanical inspection. Will it always be accurate? No, and sometimes you can do everything right, and still buy a lemon, that doesn't mean it can't be used the rest of the time.
Carfax is pretty useless. I just got one to send to a potential buyer and all the info is wrong. It had said my vehicle is leased, which it is not, those conditions have been removed. It also said I am the original owner which I am not and that it has been in no accidents but I'm almost positive the previous owner has been in an accident as well. So basically don't trust what you see on one.
In the beginning, we all thought CF was gospel and 100% accurate. Turns out it is not. Guy I work with just bought his Wife a Nissan and it had a clean CF. Then he noticed the drivers door doesn't fit exactly right, so he dug into the car's history. Turns out it had two major accidents in it's life, one being a $6000 repair.
I wish my car was one of those that fell through the cracks. Had a minor fender bender accident. Police wrote up a accident report. Within a month it was on Carfax. Trade in value is now in the toilet because of that report.
I wish my car was one of those that fell through the cracks. Had a minor fender bender accident. Police wrote up a accident report. Within a month it was on Carfax. Trade in value is now in the toilet because of that report.
It really isn't. It did go down, but to say the car has been branded with a scarlet letter, no. You likely lost $1-2K in trade value, tops.
We took cars in on trade and sold cars that had been in accidents reported to Carfax all the time, for close to what they sold for without an accident. (These were accidents, not salvage titles.)
Carfax is a helpful tool, nothing more. It's not perfect by any means, but I would insist on one for any used car I bought.
Why? Because information is power, and the more you have, the better off you are.
Precisely.
Some people insist on rejecting things because they don't cover every contingency. Well, almost nothing does that.
Get Carfax. Get an inspection. There will be some overlap in what each discovers. But either or both may well uncover something that the other didn't. As others have noted, when you're buying a car, $30 for a Carfax report is a drop in the bucket.
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