Carfax Reliability ?

[Ramp]

Ok, I spoke to an independent in Florida about a Coupe - I did the Carfax and it shows an accident with detail about a pillar hit and repairs. He is advertising this car as clean with no accidents. I raised the issue with him and he states, emphatically, that Carfax is often simply wrong and this car has simply not been in an accident.

Has anyone heard about Carfax's reliability or should I chalk this up to a used car salesman pitch - the car is on ebay.

Thanks

[Eurodino]

Ok, I spoke to an independent in Florida about a Coupe - I did the Carfax and it shows an accident with detail about a pillar hit and repairs. He is advertising this car as clean with no accidents. I raised the issue with him and he states, emphatically, that Carfax is often simply wrong and this car has simply not been in an accident.

Has anyone heard about Carfax's reliability or should I chalk this up to a used car salesman pitch - the car is on ebay.

Thanks

The car is on Ebay; and a car dealer is advertising it as a clean title....

BUT: the Carfax report shows an accident.

Believe the Carfax report.... IMHO

[paulc]

I had an accident in my Boxster S. Damage to the tune of $11k. The insurance co would not total it out because the airbags did not deploy. I sold the car to a dealer with full disclosure. A few weeks later it was on ebay as a "like new" no paintwork car.

Carfax had a clean bill of health for the car and even offered their guarantee for what that is worth, I have no idea.

do a PPI

[dparent]

Whats a ppi ???

[maserati of minneapolis]

PPI - pre purchase inspection

Carfax rarely has false accident reports. The only discrepancies I've seen are usually mileage related - someone made a typo on a title transfer. Carfax can be slow to get new information - ie accident, lean related items, and buyback status. It can take 60-90 days for new information to show up.

We switched to autocheck a few months ago, as it usually shows more information - they pull data from more sources than carfax.

I would believe the carfax. If it says there was an accident, more than likely there was an accident. You can double check this against the autocheck record - if they both state an accident, I would say you can be 95% sure it happened.

[CDF]

Whats a ppi ???

About $400 :D

[jaev]

When in doubt, I'd always trust the carfax report... having said that, a few years after I bought it, an accident report suddenly appeared on my Porsche's carfax (dating to before I owned the car). Carfax had a report number, so I wrote to the police department identified and asked for a copy of the accident report - they responded that the report number on carfax was not a valid number, and that they had no record of a car with my VIN# having been involved in an accident. So I don't know. I didn't own the car back then, so I can't ever be 100% sure it didn't happen... but it seems like there is a mistake on the carfax report (the car does not show signs of an accident, at least not a major one).

If I was buying a car, given the choice between believing the carfax or believing the salesman... no question, I'm going with carfax.

[Dr. Maserati]

I'd believe the CARFAX report over the dealer. Have you seen the car in person or just in Pics? If you are close enough 2 the dealership you should stop in and check it out 4 yourself

[LotusBoy]

Carfax is right. Most of the info comes from the police reports. I will say carfax does overstate the severaty sometimes, I was hit in my old Celica about 1600 in damage, carfax stated it was in a bad acident but it was only the bumper. We also took a H2 Hummer in trade that hit a stop sign pole (again only bummper cap was replaced) and carfax had that stating it hit a uility pole. So carfax can talk you out of a still nice car. Take a look at it and call the past owner before you rule it out.

[paunch]

I would definitely believe CarFax _if_ it lists an accident. But what if it doesn't? I'm sure any damage that occurs in an incident that is not reported to the Police is not easily traceable. I would bet that if damage occcurs and there is no Police report and no insurance claim, then it's virtually impossible for CarFax to know. I'd be willing to venture that CarFax can't obtain info regarding insurance claims so it seems that if there is no Police report then there is no record that shows in a CarFax.

Just a guess.