CarFax nearly is a FrRAUD

A product of sorts for my review.
CarFax is as close to being a fraud as it can get without crossing the line.
Carfax will give you some info on a vehicle, though it falls far, far short of finding all, or most of it.

Some experts have said that 95-99% of the info out there is unobtainable by Carfax.
You get a "smattering" of info that may or may not be correct. It might be mostly right, but all the info you are not getting is also a potential concern, and if you dont have it all then do not think all is good. If you see something bad, then that is really the only benefit of carfax, then you can check on the "bad" to see if it is valid, but you might miss many more unreported valid things you would want to know about.

On my truck Carfax said it was the top of the line model, not the base model that the vin showed. Generally it is not hard to get the vin and model info right, but do not count that they will.

Carfax now claims that what they show for the model is just an example of what it could be, but not what it is.

Carfax "buy-back guarantee"?? HAHA, forget that. They have covered every possibility where you could make a claim, so there is no buyback since they are never at fault or accountable.

Don't waste YOUR money. Looking at a carfax that the seller provides will do no harm as getting 1% of the info is better than getting 0%, but keep in mind you will be getting very little, and possibly very wrong info.

All the other vin check sites will give you very fake info, put in two different vins and you might just get the exact same info back.

Good luck

 

Yea mine said one owner and no damage... frame was rusted and truck needed repair so I ended up putting just as much money for repair as I did buying it. Go by independent inspection. I wish I did

 

Carfax isn’t magic, they can’t know the frame is rusted out unless it’s been reported by a shop somewhere.

 

T

They suck a$$

 

Can you be more specific? What do you drive and what did Carfax say it was? I'm asking because apparently there are only two trim levels for Tacomas, SR5 and Limited, while SR and TRD are packages...

 

There’s a shit ton of work that gets done personally by the owner and/or independent shops that never gets reported.

I’d only buy a certified preowned from dealer or from original owner with records.

 

It's frequently the case that OEMs don't code trim level into the VIN in any way so they either need to have individual VIN information or they will typically just associate the truck with some default. Frequently they get bad info and the VIN report doesn't match the actual vehicle for one reason or another.

 

I sold an older vehicle to CarMax a few years ago. I was really up front about a major accident. Their VIN record check turned up nothing. They asked me if I was sure about the accident and I said yes. Then they just shrugged and said well it wasn't in their system. Got a pretty penny for the vehicle. Several years earlier I had checked Carfax and it had the accident in their report. Do the records have a lifetime on them or something?

Just sharing my experience..

 

I was selling a car and the buyer wanted a Carfax so I bought it to see what was on it first. There was some minor hail damage to the car, but Carfax reported it as major damage to all sides of the car, basically made it look like the car was in a major wreck. Fortunately the buyer believed me when I showed the receipts and the claim.

 

That's unusual. Typically the used car dealers are ex-body shop techs who are experts at finding repainted panels and other collision repairs, just so they can find reasons to give you bottom dollar for your car.