Is It A Good Deal ?

I’ve been in the car business a long time and I can tell you that is definitely a better vehicle history report service than Carfax reports. is owned by Experian, which you may know as the credit reporting agency.

If you think Carfax offers an accurate vehicle history report, think again. The $20 you spend to buy a Carfax vehicle history report, which is supposed to show title problems, flood damage, odometer issues and many other problems, might be a big waste of money. Thousands of people around the country have bought cars with clean Carfax reports and have found out accidents didn’t show up in the carfax report, odometer was rolled back or the car has a previous salvage title in another state. Many, many people find out things that would have steered them away from their purchase, but now that they bought the car it’s too late.

One man went to trade in his 2003 Jeep Cherokee and when the dealer pulled up the Carfax on his car it showed a severe accident with a possible salvage history. Truth of the matter was he was involved in a minor accident, so minor he was able to drive it to the body shop. No major damage or anything… but Carfax reported inaccurate information and the dealer ended up paying him $5000 less because of this Carfax report. He even tried fighting it, he sent a thirty page report from the body shop with pictures, names and numbers of everybody who worked on the car and the insurance adjustor information who all declared the Carfax had reported the accident incorrectly, yet Carfax refused to change the information.

Carfax claims its “the most trusted provider of vehicle history information”. There is one place you’d figure Carfax would get most of its data from, insurance companies. Believe it or not, but Carfax doesn’t receive any records about wrecked vehicles from any insurance companies.

You might say, what about their Buyback Guarantee, which is supposed to protect you in case the Carfax shows inaccurate information. Well truth of the matter is Carfax since starting the program has only bought back roughly 9 cars ! Just two years ago a class action lawsuit was filed claiming the company doesn’t have access to police accident data in 23 states. Remember there are 50 states That means in about half the states in the US, Carfax has no police accident data. Two of the biggest states motor vehicle departments, California and Texas, verified that they do not provide unique VIN number information to vendors.

As a car dealer myself I’ll say this… personally I think both Carfax and Autocheck suck. A good percentage of accidents or major problems don’t even show up on Carfax reports. Nothing beats a good inspection and if you need some help bring a mechanic or knowledgeable friend. If I had to pick between Carfax and Autocheck, I’d say Autocheck for one reason and one reason only, Manheim Auctions, the largest network of automotive auctions in the world, which is where almost every used car passes through at one point in their life only reports more so to Autocheck then Carfax.

This poor family bought a car they found on Craigslist.com, they did what most people do and ran a Carfax vehicle history report and found a clean report. They then purchased the car and four months later the police were at their door to impound the car. So remember, just because you get a clean Carfax or Autocheck report it doesn’t mean the car isn’t stolen.

Complete Story

Because of the rising strength in the Canadian Dollar and the decline of the U.S. Dollar many Canadians are coming across the border to buy cars or many U.S. cars are getting shipped and sold in Canada. One major problem arises from all that though and that is some of the cars being taken to Canada are deemed lemon cars in the U.S. but not in Canada. To help identify vehicles bought back by auto manufacturers, used car shoppers can check for lemon brands using the free Carfax Lemon Check at www.carfax.com.

Faulty Air Bag Replacements Put Consumer Lives At Risk

CENTREVILLE, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Industry experts estimate that as many as one out of 25 previously damaged vehicles may have non-functional air bags. Con men purposely replace deployed air bags with anything from packing peanuts to stolen units. This growing scam is threatening the lives of used car buyers everywhere. To help consumers protect themselves, Carfax now makes the air bag deployment information in its database available for free.

“No question, air bags are a lifesaver,” said Larry Gamache, communications director at Carfax. “To best protect yourself, follow these two important steps: Use the free Carfax air bag check and always have your mechanic test the air bag system to ensure it’s functioning properly before you buy. Do not assume your car’s air bags will deploy when you need them, because most victims of this scam may never know until it’s too late.”

According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, nearly 20,000 lives have been saved by air bags deploying in an accident. As the height of used car buying season quickly approaches, consumers need to be on the lookout for scams like air bag fraud that can threaten their safety.

“While we don’t know about every air bag deployment, we want consumers to have access to what we do know,” added Gamache. “We also encourage all of our customers who have information about a previous air bag deployment not currently in our database to tell us so we can further help consumers steer clear of this scam.”

Consumers can log on to www.carfax.com/airbag to access the free Carfax air bag check and can report air bag deployment information using the “Tell Us What You Know” link on all consumer-purchased Carfax Vehicle History Reports.