I had an eye opening experience today

Last week I was rear-ended and had / have concerns of the frame being bent. Today it went into the body shop, I was asking about diminished value if it had. I was told that they don't report to the carfax or any other data base and they don't know many that do. He also said 90% of insurance companies do not either because they don't want to deal with those lawsuits. He stated that it becomes the states duty.
Short of reporting it ones self, it kinda blows holes in carfax reports. Unless it's a state to state difference or shop to shop difference.

 

So, what you are saying is make sure you do your due dilligence and completely inspect the used vehicle before purchasing.

 

sounds odd, How reputable is the shop. Sounds like a larger fraud on the insurance side which all adjusters I work with are very stringent

 

There are many diminished value threads on here and very few authoritative answers. My take on it is that you are at the mercy of the insurance company.

Why do you think your frame is bent? If it is, it should be obvious to the collision shop and they will report the cost to your insurance company. If it’s not obvious, it’s unlikely it will be obvious to a future buyer.

I do kind of think people worry too much about bent frames on the forum. I’m not sure why.

 

Exactly opposite of my experience. I’ve had repairs done that I paid out of pocket for(no insurance claim) and it still showed up on carfax. I’m under the impression that all repairs are reported but I could be wrong.

 

No, there are a lot of independent shops and guys that don’t report. A lot people think they do this this to keep it off the “record”. But it’s not the cars record you are keeping it off. It’s your insurance record.

For instance, you back into pole. You know it’s your fault, and the repairs cost about the same as the deductible. I’d rather pay out of pocket and than call the insurance company and have my rates go up for a claim.

It’s sad, I’m not going to turn this thread into an insurance bashing thread. But what are you doing do? You have to have it, and you have to pay it. I’d rather pay less.

 

When I bought my '05 Tacoma in 2017, the CarFax was spotless clean.

When I sold it 2 weeks ago, a "minor damage" entry from 2014 had been added, and indicated it was at the rear of the vehicle.

It had the typical tailgate dent, I can only assume that was the damage. Anyway. It wasn't on the report in 2017, but was there in 2022.

 

Back in 2013 I tagged a car at the Orlando airport. It damaged the plastic cover on my TE 4Runner bumper. It was like $600 to fix o with a $500 deductible, so I decided not to get the insurance company involved. The body shop still put it down as an accident on Carfax. Since the body shop didn’t specify what type of damage it was, there is no minor or major damage qualifier even though the vehicle structure was undamaged.

I have another car that I registered in California and Colorado, and it shows that it’s had three previous owners because for some reason the first time I registered it in Colorado was owner number one, when I brought it to California it was owner number two, and when I got the title it is now owner number three. Good luck explaining that.

 

Well from some of the responses so far I'm beginning to think it's on case by case deal. In North Dakota accidents involving less than 4000. are not considered reportable the officer said if it goes over that then the shop should let the state know. The right side of my bumper is pushed in a bit and the box is almost touching the cab on that side.

 

The experience with carfax i've had was when my tundra got into a fender bender during the warranty period. It went back to the toyota dealers body shop, and ended up on car fax.
My bothers highlander hit a 400 lb black bear which cause him over 3k worth of damage. He took it to an independent auto body shop. It never was reported to car fax.

 

I’m not aware of any laws regarding reports to carfax. AFAIK, they are a for-profit company that aggregates publicly available data plus data they (likely) pay for. I don’t see any other incentive besides money for insurance companies, repair shops, etc to give data to them. You might be over estimating their ability to be a omnipotent big brother.

 

You would be correct. I can’t imagine there would be any laws requiring reporting of accidents or service records to a third-party private agency.

I have found Carfax at best to be a half assed attempt at a service and accident history and at worst to be grossly misleading as reporting for the most part is voluntary and financially motivated.

The things that typically get reported to the state DMV would be odometer discrepancies and whether a vehicle has a salvage title.

 

Its kind of strange, every time i took my 2020 tacoma back for toyotacare, I received an email from carfax recording my truck had its scheduled maintenance. I wonder if others experienced the same.

 

I guess this is what I don't want to have happen with me I bought it new and I want the cause of the accident and I'm not sure if I want to have a truck with a bent /repaired frame. The damage seems light on the surface but the impact was a good jolt.

 

Absolutely. When I sold my Nissan Titan privately I disclosed an accident and provided paperwork for the repairs which included a transferable guarantee. Even paid for a CarFox per the buyers request. Didn't even show anything.

 

I think it's a Carfax and dealership partnership thing. My truck came with a lifetime of ownership Carfax account. Has the report as well as the maintenance internals and records. I get emails of maintenance coming due and recalls. Kinda annoying to update both the Toyota owner account and Carfax for DIY maintenance.

 

1) If cops are called to the scene its reported to carfax crash reports go into a state database Insurance pulls from to get there regional info for rates
2) most body shops report to carfax
3) most auto repair shops now report to cafax for maintenance records

There really is not a away around this stuff anymore with this connected world we live in

 

I feel like they record your oil changes and everything these days so this surprises me honestly.

 

Wut? Please provide some evidence.

 

I understand that, but my accident report says it is not a reportable incident, it was done as a curiosity to my request because the other driver was driving a older vehicle and our state minimum liability is 25000. I wanted it for my protection as it was stated they had another car involved in an accident a week prior so my insurance company has someone to go after in case of under insured. The cop was somewhat annoyed because he was being his own best estimater. The box is closer to the cab on that side.