You can add the vehicle to your list on Lexus website and then you can see the dealer services.
Is CarFax/AutoCheck worth a hoot?
- Thread starter Nick1994
- Start date
They're hit or miss at best imo. I had a vehicle that was legally parked, hit, and totaled. I bought it back from the insurance company fixed it and about five years later sold it. I ran a CF report and it came back clean. Having sold cars professionally I saw that more than once. People logging repairs, maintenance etc. with them or anyone else, I take that with a grain of salt.
It just a tool. But I will always read it. Sometimes I see a car into the dealer 3 or 4 times for electrical issue, ECM issues or alignment/tire vibration issues. I had purchased a car that was carfax clean/no accidents but later when working on it I noticed it was sideswiped and repaired. You can also see cars that were purchased and sold out of state and auctioned and transported in.
Earlier this year, I was looking at a beautiful red over black AR Giulia (23k miles 23k dollars) just off lease, it showed no service, no oil changes whatsoever. I went to the Bimmer dealer selling it to ask about it's service. They said that car went to our pre-owned outlet down the street in Exeter and Um ... It's sold.
Mystery unsolved. Mistake avoided?
Earlier this year, I was looking at a beautiful red over black AR Giulia (23k miles 23k dollars) just off lease, it showed no service, no oil changes whatsoever. I went to the Bimmer dealer selling it to ask about it's service. They said that car went to our pre-owned outlet down the street in Exeter and Um ... It's sold.
Mystery unsolved. Mistake avoided?
$45 on the carfax site.
~$5 on ebay though the sellers often get banned so there's lots of turnover
Interesting. Didn't realize you could do that. Nice feature! Of course, assumes an honest and competent owner.
It matters a ton to buyers and sellers for showing a car with a service history AND no accidents.
1 accident+ or missing service history makes the vehicle less appealing in used market.
1 accident+ or missing service history makes the vehicle less appealing in used market.
I bought a car without it once. Found out later it was in a major accident (telephone pole) when I wanted it trade it for a slightly better daily driver. Wish I asked for the Carfax and have ever since. Like it was mentioned above, it doesn't cover everything and is only as good as the information entered, but for registrations and major accidents, its relatively accurate.
CARFAX isn't 100% accurate . Years ago used CARFAX to get the history of a used '99 ESCORT and no issues . When trading it in they discovered it was in a wreck by the dealers shop that noticed overspray . The sales person pointed it out . Took a bit of a hit on the trade in . So , only as good as the people that work on the vehicles .
Was looking at a CarFax on a 2002 WS6 with 31K miles I was looking to purchase. The CarFax had a lot of things
wrong with it....which was expected based on how rough the car looked. But, it was the drive-train and mechanicals
that really mattered to me. Well, I decided to contact my local GM Dealership and talked to the service mgr.
They provided another page or two of un-disclosed maintenance/warranty items. The car had had 2 full brake jobs,
exhaust done twice, side mirror done twice, engine bearing work, transmission shifter work, and a number of other things.
Most of that stuff done under the warranty period. It looked like the orig owner was trying to get "new everything" while
they could........lol.
CarFax had only half the story. The complete story was that the car was a complete mess.....driven hard in wet mud, abused,
and left that way when it showed up for trade-in at the dealership. Hard pass despite the $10K price.
wrong with it....which was expected based on how rough the car looked. But, it was the drive-train and mechanicals
that really mattered to me. Well, I decided to contact my local GM Dealership and talked to the service mgr.
They provided another page or two of un-disclosed maintenance/warranty items. The car had had 2 full brake jobs,
exhaust done twice, side mirror done twice, engine bearing work, transmission shifter work, and a number of other things.
Most of that stuff done under the warranty period. It looked like the orig owner was trying to get "new everything" while
they could........lol.
CarFax had only half the story. The complete story was that the car was a complete mess.....driven hard in wet mud, abused,
and left that way when it showed up for trade-in at the dealership. Hard pass despite the $10K price.
If someone didn't want to deal with hassle of selling a car privately, you can always trade it in. If you do list it privately, then you should be prepared to deal with all-comers, even the 'dopey' looking varieties. I don't understand why sellers would get offended if a prospective buyer asks to see a Carfax or service history report.
I have bought several cars privately off CL. I research the cars and do my due diligence. I do not hesitate in inquiring if the seller has a Carfax report to share. If they do, well and good, shows me that they motivated and maybe don't have anything to hide. If they don't, fine, I might pull one if I really like the car. I would think that the seller would recoup the expense with a higher selling price or a quicker sale, meaning less time wasted dealing with tire-kickers.
I also list them on my Honda Owners site too...
I log my WRX oil changes on my MySubaru account..... In theory maybe they will also show up on Carfax?
My FORD dealer set me up with a my carfax maintenance reminder system, I uploaded my personal OC and filter changes since it kept harassing me to bring it in for service! My work done showed up on my report, but IT DID NOT SHOW on the public report. I looked at the free carfax on this cvehicle after I traded it in the dealer advertisement. I also saw the dealer was selling for $5000.00 more than they gave me as a trade - that's a TON on a $10k used car - the vehicle only required one scratch repair and wash wax and oil change, so there was no heavy recon dealer outlay. - Arco
I’ve always ran a carfax on every used car I’ve purchased. Mostly, it has only made me more confident of a purchase seeing a robust maintenance history.
I looked up a Yaris carfax, and it showed something like 7 owners, 2 light damage accidents and a spotty maintenance record. I retracted that purchase based on the carfax alone.
I don’t care if people say it’s useless. I use carfax for every used car purchase. $30 is nothing next to buying a car.
I looked up a Yaris carfax, and it showed something like 7 owners, 2 light damage accidents and a spotty maintenance record. I retracted that purchase based on the carfax alone.
I don’t care if people say it’s useless. I use carfax for every used car purchase. $30 is nothing next to buying a car.
Nick1994
$100 site donor 2024
Another thing to note for my Lexus.
The CarFax lists Lexus of Chandler doing the dealer prep stuff like installing chrome wheels etc. 10/25/2013 then nothing until an oil change there until 6/22/2015 for an oil change at 18,251 miles.
However, logging into the Lexus Owners website shows that same dealer did 2 oil changes at 5,062 and 9,936 miles in between the dealer sales prep and the 18k oil change. So it was dealer serviced, they just didn’t click the button to report to CarFax “some” of the times.
The CarFax lists Lexus of Chandler doing the dealer prep stuff like installing chrome wheels etc. 10/25/2013 then nothing until an oil change there until 6/22/2015 for an oil change at 18,251 miles.
However, logging into the Lexus Owners website shows that same dealer did 2 oil changes at 5,062 and 9,936 miles in between the dealer sales prep and the 18k oil change. So it was dealer serviced, they just didn’t click the button to report to CarFax “some” of the times.
I recently bought a 2022 Tiguan and found that some of the last dealer services listed on the carfax report were fabricated by the selling VW dealer. The service report said the dealership changed the oil and air filter in preparation for the sale. For example, I checked the air filter sometime after I got home (a few weeks after) and it was the original VW air filter with a 2022 date code on it. Plus it was obviously dirty. The oil change reminder system indicated it was at about 60% which lines up with a previous service recorded oil change. All to support the notion that unscrupulous dealers and sellers can cheat on these carfax reports…
