Carfax Means Nothing

"Denver Is Stuck In The 90s" (denver80222) 01/14/2015 at 05:35 • Filed to: None

3

24

Before I bought my truck the carfax on it came back clean. But I got up under my truck yesterday and I found Ford Service Parts stickers on the front bumper and crumples in the front of the frame where it attaches to the bumper. I also found dried paint drips on the body under the headlights and grille and I noticed the hood doesnt latch flush with the passenger fender. That misaligned hood was hidden well by the plastic hood deflector. I mean these things dont make my truck run any less well or make it work in any lesser capacity, and it certainly doesnt make me love my truck any less. I just wish Carfax would be more comprehensive if they make people pay for the service. But seriously, Whoever did the collision repair did a phenomenal job especially because it took nearly 2 months for me to notice the damage. If any non gearhead were to have purchased the truck instead of me, it would have never been noticed.

Svend > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 01/14/2015 at 05:44

3

A Carfax or similar is only as accurate as the information given. If someone fails to declare information, who's to know?

That's why it's always best to give the car a good going over or as close as you can get.

Always check to see if there is any finance still owed on the vehicle and then get a detailed inspection, if the owner is wary then walk away but that's the price you pay with a used car (or even new for that matter) as you can never guarantee how it's been treated or where it's been.

cnessel27 > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 01/14/2015 at 05:44

2

A family friend of mine was trying to sell his c5 Corvette (to get the c6 when it came out) which he had owned since new and never wrecked. It's Carfax came up as being in an accident and having multiple owners, so no one would buy it for what it was worth. I believe he had to take them to court to get them to adjust the info on the car. I know it's the opposite of your issue with them but, hearing this kinda stuff makes me not want to use them ever.

Denver Is Stuck In The 90s > cnessel27 01/14/2015 at 05:47

0

I mean the damage is trivial. The truck runs and drives great and nothing is twisted, I just wish the information was declared. The Truck is solid as a rock

Denver Is Stuck In The 90s > Svend 01/14/2015 at 05:54

0

The thing is before I bought it I went over it with a fine tooth comb, even my parents liked it and they only like Hondas with 4pots and 30+ mpg. It was easy to miss and very competently repaired, so Im not worrying too much about it. I just want some accountability from carfax and similar services

Tinfoil Hat in a thunderstorm, now with added diecast > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 01/14/2015 at 06:09

1

Man your having a rough time lately! As Svend said carfax can only supply information if it's there, don't even waste your energy getting shity with them as you won't get any where with that. As you said the work has been done well so you shouldn't worry about it. The collision must have been relatively minor anyway and wasn't reported. Glad to her it hasn't affected your love for Veronica.

Svend > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 01/14/2015 at 06:20

1

Carfax can only put the information on it if someone tells them.

As long as the repairs have been done properly then you should retain a degree of it's value, however declare it now and then what you could of had off the car had you known when buying it then becomes lost and then becomes a bargaining chip for the next person who later on wants to buy it from you when you come to sell.

You can spend ages checking a car but I guess you can only really check so far and have to assume a degree of the unknown as I alluded to there is the same with new cars. One transporter driver was telling me there is a big garage on the dock side repairing cars that have either been damaged in transit on the ferry or when unloading them, how much of these will be declared and how many will simply be graded as minor repair and pushed back into the line?

That said if it is holding up just enjoy it.

JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 01/14/2015 at 06:35

0

Meanwhile my dads Volvo got backed into in a parking lot. Lady hit him at 5mph just a little ding smaller than a quarter in size and now his report says its been an accident....

Denver Is Stuck In The 90s > Tinfoil Hat in a thunderstorm, now with added diecast 01/14/2015 at 06:38

0

Ya, The collision had to be minor, I'm running on the original wheels. If the damage were bad enough to go past the radiator the wheels would be toast

Tinfoil Hat in a thunderstorm, now with added diecast > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 01/14/2015 at 06:51

1

I once drove an FJ73 Landcruiser into the rear crumple zone of a Corolla, I know this because it crumpled! The impact was hard enough that the front of the LC went far enough into the Corolla that one front wheel took a lot of the force. A few months after the repairs were done I noticed a hair-line crack had formed in the center part of the rim thanks to a fine rust line showing up, rust isn't allways evil.

LC: 1

Corolla: 0

Denver Is Stuck In The 90s > Tinfoil Hat in a thunderstorm, now with added diecast 01/14/2015 at 07:16

0

Well my wheels are aluminum so any dents or cracks and the would surely be toast

Roundbadge > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 01/14/2015 at 07:40

1

My '99 Dakota had been hit in the passenger-side door. From the outside, there was no evidence that I ever noticed. When you opened the door, though...the weep holes in the bottom of the door had broken glass in them and the window was very difficult to wind down, indicating bent guides. There was no mention of this on the Carfax report.

As you're now well aware, the Carfax report should never be taken as gospel, but from what I hear reporting is done much more diligently now than it was in the past.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 01/14/2015 at 07:42

0

Yeah, it's a truck. Pretty much any damage is going to be trivial when you're sitting on a ladder frame.

Takuro Spirit > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 01/14/2015 at 08:16

0

At least they're Ford stickers and not Keystone or Certifit, or some other cheap Chinese made garbage.

McMike > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 01/14/2015 at 08:18

0

Think of CarFax like your answers during a job interview.

"Have you ever broken the law"

"Have you ever been arrested"

No one will ever answer #1.

03mach1 - Now has a Fiesta ST > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 01/14/2015 at 08:45

0

I discovered this when I went to look at an 02 Mustang GT. It was really promising, really low price, decent miles and mechanically it looked ok. The interior was a little rough but nothing that can't be fixed. Then we saw it, it was beat up. None of the front body panels lined up well either. In short, it was clearly in an accident and abused by its last owner.

Not all shops will report to them either. I got a massive amount of work done on my car at a Firestone and nothing showed up on Carfax.

Oh ya, the misaligned hood may just be a Ford thing of that time. My hood is misaligned to, yet the Shaker scoop is perfectly center in the hole. So it was that way from the factory. Though my car was an earlier build and the Mach's had different hoods so maybe that's why.

FrederickLawOlmsteez > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 01/14/2015 at 08:49

0

Uhh, help me out here. Unless you bought this thing without seeing it in person, how on God's earth do you not check body panel fitment and it over carefully for signs of a respray/repair? A piece of paper suggested you'd be wasting your time? You do realize that people get in accidents all the time without going through insurance, right? You give up all rights to complain about CarFax when you rely on it solely and ignore the basics of buying a car.

FrederickLawOlmsteez > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 01/14/2015 at 08:51

1

Ohhh, you got the parent's seal of approval. Clearly, they are to blame. Sue them for diminished value!

mazda616 > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 01/14/2015 at 08:51

0

I'll have an issue someday when I go to sell my car because the Carfax says it had an odometer rollback due to "mileage discrepancy." No, the salesman's sloppy handwriting was read by the clerk at the DMV as "22,200" instead of the actual mileage of "12,200." I went to have it corrected the next day, and now there's a flag on the Carfax.

Killing-Machine > Svend 01/14/2015 at 09:13

1

Agree, I work for a company that owns over 12,000 pieces of equipment and vehicles, the different regions have tons of autonomy from TE corporate office. For making bonuses the most important part of the equation is safety, any accident or injury counts huge against you bonus, so managers on a regional level will do anything to hide an accident on our vehicles. Most of these vehicles get turned in around 75k, none of these accidents will ever show up on carfax.

BigBlock440 > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 01/14/2015 at 10:24

0

You expect someone who repairs their own vehicles to report to carfax? Or for carfax to know? Or do you not expect someone to repair their own vehicles or take it to a small shop that doesn't bother?

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 01/14/2015 at 10:44

0

Well like others have said this isn't necessarily Carfax's fault.

Picture this- Guy slides in the snow and smacks into a tree at the end of his driveway. It's his tree, no need to call the cops. He calls the ford dealer and says hey i need a new hood for my truck. "Ok no problem come pick it up". He installs the hood himself, in a few months he can afford to go over to Maaco and get it painted. Gets the front painted now so he's not driving a multi-color truck.

Maaco has no idea there was an accident, just needed to paint it.

So no police report, no one did body repairs. Maaco just painted it, why report?

—-

Carfax has a tendency to give a massive false security

K-Roll-PorscheTamer > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 01/14/2015 at 10:48

0

I wouldn't trust Cargax for shit. It's oilenletbme trust my class project to y partners. Just no.

Look over every single nook and cranny of whatever car you're selling, take it to a mechanic and have him look over it. It's much better than reasons what some bloke has to say about a cars "history" online.

He'll who's to say it's even accurate.

zeontestpilot > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 01/14/2015 at 11:02

0

I've often wondered what my car's carfax says. I bought it with 32k miles on it, it now has over 96k. It's an '08, and I bought it in '10. That's two years with about 16k each.

I've wondered if some elderly person had the car previously, if it was a lease, etc. It was in near immaculate condition when I got it too.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 01/14/2015 at 14:59

0

Carfax gets its info from the insurance companies, they can only know about damage if a claim was made. If someone is in an accident and gets it fixed without going through insurance, Carfax will never find out about it. Most likely your truck was in a car-on-object collision where the driver knew they were at fault, not a car-on-car collision.