How valuable is a Carfax really?

[fdcg27]

The plebes seem to like them, no doubt influenced by the heavy advertising.
In practice, I paid for a subscription once while looking at a number of used cars.
I ran two cars that we owned through the system and found glaring inaccuracies in accident history as well as chain of ownership.
I emailed the company about this and got no response at all.
From what I've seen, while I might like to see a Carfax report, I wouldn't give it a whole lot of weight.
What it does report is probably valid. It's what it doesn't show that would concern me.
GIGO, since not every repair source sells their information to Carfax.
I'd guess that very few indie repair or body shops do.

 

[Auae85]

Carfax, like any database, is only as good as its entries. Case in point - I bought my younger son a 1-owner 2003 Nissan Sentra SE-R in the summer of 2012, to use as his college car. The Carfax at the time showed only routine maintenance and minor repairs over the previous 9 years, no accidents. After my son went into the Army last Spring, I "inherited" the car as a work car, drove it a little while, and traded it in last month as part of buying a truck. I went to the dealer's website a few days later to see what they were selling it for (it said "Call for Details"), and they had a link to look at the free Carfax. I opened it to see how it recorded work we did from 2012 to 2018. The Carfax said "stolen vehicle"! What? it reported that it was stolen in 2007 and recovered. I found my copy of the Carfax from 2012 and there was no mention of that theft. So, that was an interesting thing to find out.

 

[fdcg27]

As long as the rubes think that Carfax is received truth, their business model will shine.
Carfax is more of a feel good thing for used car buyers than it is a source of complete vehicle history.

 

[eljefino]

Last I looked, Carfax doesn't show reposessions. Bought two $2500 dealer cars for family and both were repos! Didn't find out until I paid my money and got the title. These were the next state over; if it were in Maine the licensed dealer would have put the title through and I'd have never known. Since the bank holds the title as leinholder, they just staple an affadavit to it and the title remains "clean" and doesn't see the DMV until the next sucker registers the car.

Ask to see the title. In my state the dealer has to have it on-premises. Not an end-all-be-all, but very free and easy. And you can gauge their attitude at the request.

 

[CKN]

On a Silverado I owned-we moved in to a new house with a narrow garage and I took out the passenger's side rear fender. Nasty scrape. Paid cash for the $600.00 repair/repaint. The new paint matched perfectly and never showed up on the Carfax. I traded in the car and the dealer proudly displayed the Carfax and highlighted the fact "no accidents"!