CARFAX reporting of accident damage

[slo town]

Hello:

My son ran into an unexpected issue while trying to sell his 2016 Jeep Rubicon. He's like me and takes exceptional care of his vehicles. Anyway, about 6 months ago he got rear ended by a Prius. The Prius got its "teeth knocked out" so to speak, and my son's Jeep only had the tabs on his receiver bent. That was it. There was literally no other damage.

Given the extensive damage to the Prius, relatively speaking, the owner of the Prius wanted to get a police report. Even though it was the Prius owners fault he wanted a police report for insurance purposes. Because they exchanged names, etc., his insurance company later contacted my son, wanting to send him a check for the damage to his receiver. My son wasn't expecting this, and had in fact already replaced the receiver out of pocket. But, hey, "free money", right? He cashed the check.

Six months later and he's now trying to sell his Rubicon. CARFAX now shows it was in an accident (!), which is something he now has to explain to prospective buyers. Even with this being a virtual non-event damage-wise to his Jeep, it's opened a can of worms with prospective buyers.

FWIW,

Scott

 

[PimTac]

Did he take pictures of the damage? Those could assure the buyers that no serious damage occurred.

 

[ragtoplvr]

When it is not your fault as for diminished value payment too and take a picture.

Rod

 

[slo town]

He did not take pictures given that his vehicle was virtually undamaged. Funny thing is, had the Prius driver not asked for an accident report, he said he might have taken pictures. For my son, it was an inconvenience more than anything. He was out running errands and this took an hour long bite out of his day.

I'm stating the obvious perhaps - but the real message and moral of the story is that CARFAX makes no distinction between $100 and $10,000 damage when they report that a vehicle has been in an accident.

Scott

 

[ARCOgraphite]

Sue carfax. I see a great class action suit for the high level ambulance chasers

 

[doitmyself]

First time I ever heard of an insurance company offering money without being asked. There must be more to the story. Did your own insurance company get involved? Did you have to sign anything saying that you could not pursue any other issues, forever?

I don't think the Carfax report will affect the final outcome of the sale. If you explain it like you did in the OP, anyone with any knowledge whatsoever about cars will know that replacing the receiver is trivial. In Michigan, even repairs done at a dealer often don't show up on Carfax in my experience. My Caravan sustained $10,000 dollars damage when it was rear ended. Didn't show up on Carfax.

 

[slo town]

Originally Posted by doitmyself
First time I ever heard of an insurance company offering money without being asked. There must be more to the story. Did your own insurance company get involved? Did you have to sign anything saying that you could not pursue any other issues, forever?

I don't think the Carfax report will affect the final outcome of the sale. If you explain it like you did in the OP, anyone with any knowledge whatsoever about cars will know that replacing the receiver is trivial. In Michigan, even repairs done at a dealer often don't show up on Carfax in my experience. My Caravan sustained $10,000 dollars damage when it was rear ended. Didn't show up on Carfax.

It happened just like I described; out of the blue a check arrived in his mailbox. Perhaps given the specific damage to an easily replaceable part and the low dollar amount for the part it somehow simplified and expedited the insurance company's internal process....? Maybe him cashing the check was a way for the insurance company to "wash their hands of the issue" and protect themselves from some kind of unseen damage......? I don't know.

Scott

 

[WyrTwister]

Receiver ? As in , trailer hitch .

I drive one until it is no longer cost effective to repair . So , this question has never entered my mind .

Does he have a receipt for the replacement receiver ?

This illustrates what happens when a smaller vehicle comes into contact with a larger / heavier vehicle .

 

[slo town]

Originally Posted by WyrTwister
Receiver ? As in , trailer hitch .

I drive one until it is no longer cost effective to repair . So , this question has never entered my mind .

Does he have a receipt for the replacement receiver ?

This illustrates what happens when a smaller vehicle comes into contact with a larger / heavier vehicle .

All I know is that it was held on by four bolts and took 5 minutes to replace.

I'm a road vehicle guy. I'm not familiar with proper off road terminology I guess!

Scott

PS The vehicle will sell for what he wants for it. It only has 13K miles on it. It's a four door Rubicon. He's already had several people look at it after listing it 4 or 5 days ago, a couple of them seem seriously interested. As I said, the moral of the story is that CARFAX seems to not differentiate between $100 and $10,000 accident damage. If your vehicle is involved in a very minor accident where only a bolt on replaceable part is damaged, a person may want to repair it themselves and pay out of pocket so the vehicle remains "clean".

 

[MNgopher]

Not sure what the real issue is here.

The vehicle was involved in an accident. A police report was filed reflecting it was one of the vehicles in an accident.

The person who owned the vehicle at the time didn't document with photos what happened to cover this scenario (or any other for that matter). That being said, they can describe exactly what was replaced, and what I would do in that case is state that that the buyer could take it to any autobody shop of their choice to look for anything else. You've got nothing to hide.

The autocheck report on my Explorer stated what was replaced from an accident (door panel, single car low speed impact). Carfax just indicated it was in an accident in Minnesota. Different data sources can give more context at least.

 

[PimTac]

In my opinion it's smart to take pictures of any incident. I had a parking lot bump with a rental car. The damage was so minimal yet I took pictures in case things escalated as they do sometimes. Also, I now take video of rental car walk arounds since my incident with Enterprise and their scam on declaring damage when there was no accident.

 

[slo town]

Originally Posted by PimTac
In my opinion it's smart to take pictures of any incident. I had a parking lot bump with a rental car. The damage was so minimal yet I took pictures in case things escalated as they do sometimes. Also, I now take video of rental car walk arounds since my incident with Enterprise and their scam on declaring damage when there was no accident.


Agree. I'm glad I'm not the only one who takes pictures of scratches, marks, etc., on their rental car! Woohoo!!! I'm going to tell me wife there is another one out there like me!

The purpose of this thread was just an FWIW about how accident damage can be reported. It's going to be a non-issue for everyone involved, including the future buyer. It's obvious the Jeep has been well cared for and hasn't been abused.

Scott

 

[exranger06]

Originally Posted by ARCOgraphite
Sue carfax. I see a great class action suit for the high level ambulance chasers

Sue Carfax for....what, exactly?

 

[JTK]

That does suck. I too have had collision work done that never showed up on carfax.

Given the asking prices I see on used Jeep Rubicons in my area, I doubt this is going to effect resale enough to pursue further.

 

[doitmyself]

Originally Posted by SLO_Town
The purpose of this thread was just an FWIW about how accident damage can be reported. It's going to be a non-issue for everyone involved, including the future buyer. It's obvious the Jeep has been well cared for and hasn't been abused. Scott

Yea, we're doing what we do - challenging the facts. Thanks for sharing. It IS helpful information. That an insurance company would offer payment without asking is still kind of hard to believe

You should have bought the gold plated model.

 

[Alfred_B]

Originally Posted by exranger06
Originally Posted by ARCOgraphite
Sue carfax. I see a great class action suit for the high level ambulance chasers

Sue Carfax for....what, exactly?

Tongue in cheek, I think

 

[Andrew1972]

My sis in law got pretty harsh damage to her 2014 Highlander rear end from a car that dove under. After fixing vehicle she knew this accident would taint it and got top trade in dollar at Toyota/Volvo dealer for her accident free vehicle since Car Fax had not caught up.

It was sold for premium dollar as Certified Used Toyota Vehicle.

She now drives a 2016 Volvo XC90 she got certified used.

 

[cheech279]

Much ado about nothing. Yes, Carfax reporting is not perfect. But with such an insignificant amount of REAL damage, all any prospective buyer has to do is perform a pre-purchase inspection to determine the extent of repairs.

 

[CKN]

Originally Posted by madRiver
My sis in law got pretty harsh damage to her 2014 Highlander rear end from a car that dove under. After fixing vehicle she knew this accident would taint it and got top trade in dollar at Toyota/Volvo dealer for her accident free vehicle since Car Fax had not caught up.

It was sold for premium dollar as Certified Used Toyota Vehicle.

She now drives a 2016 Volvo XC90 she got certified used.


I had a 4Runner a shopping cart ran in to-required front passenger fender replacement. The used car manager noticed it. After explain what happened I still got top dollar. The only reason he noticed it was because it didn't have a serial number like the other front fender.

If it wasn't repainted-it should be a big deal-if explained correctly. The OP must be talking to some ignorant (or cheap) buyers. A quick 2 minute inspection under the rear would absolve him of trying to pull a fast one.

 

[PimTac]

I thought of a couple of things. If this Jeep has rear sensors of any kind they may have been knocked out of kilter and should be checked out. Blind spot monitoring comes to mind.

On the Ford Ranger I owned a long time ago I was rear ended by a kid in a Mustang. The Ranger has minor bumper damage which didn't need anything done to it. Inspecting underneath showed no damage. A couple of years later I had a flat and the spare was in a rack below the bed in the rear. What I hadn't noticed was that rack had bent slightly. It took a hand sledge to get that rack off the hook and lower it. What a pain.

Just some thoughts.