Stan944

would carfax show a warning if a vehicle was stolen? if so, how lonf do they take to update records?

Darwantae951

I honestly don't trust carfax. If you run one on my car, it says that no insurance claims have been made, yet I had a complete respray from hail damage...

bearone

carfax is worthless.

87951
95sl320 dd

ilikemy944

I bought a car whose frontend was welded back on. Yay for a clean carfax report.

alordofchaos

+1, though i'd say "almost worthless" as it may show some things.

Carfax is a compilation of data reported by state DMVs and some other agencies (insurance, etc). It's hard to say when it is updated because it may vary by state and when that particular state updates data to Carfax, or when that insurance company reports it. If a car is trashed but wasn't reported to the DMV or insurance company or other agency, the repairs wouldn't ever show up on Carfax

When in doubt about a car being stolen, call the VIN directly to your local PD non-emergency number or take it down to the station - they can check NCIC and other places, which are more likely to be up to date. You can also run a VIN here for free:
https://www.nicb.org/cps/rde/xchg/ni.../vincheck.html

Jfrahm

Carfax is a lot better than worthless. It cannot protect you from everything, but it often has some good info. It's not magic, if a car is damaged and the damage not claimed or reported it will not be in there. Duh.

You can ask the seller if the car has been wrecked or flooded, and he might lie. Or maybe he'll be honest. Why not ask? Some sellers lie but that does not mean you don't ask questions. Same thing with Carfax. Sure there might be undisclosed problems but there is information and you might as well have it. Better than not knowing.

What I like is the history of the locations, registrations, mileage over the years, smog checks, great info if it has been logged for that particular car.

-Joel.

Stan944

I've purchased both carfax and CarProof. The latter is much more detailed, and contained some minor collision repair info, while CARFAX did not.

smshirk

Thanks for sharing this URL

Tom R.

My neighbor hit my wife's car. it needs a new bumper. I am going to change the bumper. My neighbor is then going to reimburse me for the parts, and then throw a few rib eyes on the barbie.

his insurance is out of it, and carfax is out of it. i hope i remember to disclose that i replaced the plastic bumper cover to the dealer when i trade the car in in six years because i dont think it will appear on a carfax.

however, when someone backed into my miata in the white house garage, and the PO reported it, the police report was on the carfax.

bearone

perhaps i've been lucky but i've never seen or heard, until now, of a police report showing up on a carfax report.

87951
95sl320 dd

Stan944

thanks.

hacker-pschorr

I have two salvage / rebuilt cars that have clean carfax reports.

alordofchaos

Hey, Hacker - I'm curious, would you mind trying your rebuilt VINs in that link I posted above? I'm curious as to what it would show.

Thanks!

hacker-pschorr

One shows a collision, the other one does not.

alordofchaos

Thanks!

I expect that the one that does not show anything, was just never reported to the insurance company.