Thread: What to expect from carfax and other VIN reports

elpedro- thanks for that! Hers what came up for mine: Code: DOLLAR POINT SHELL / TAHOE CITY   VOLKS   VANAGON   1987   08/11/2000 01:30 p.m.   P   DX182181C AUTO DOCTOR / TRUCKEE   VOLKS   VANAGON   1987   10/30/1998 10:10 a.m. ...

tangstadt wrote: I think it says it all when you walk into a dealer to buy a used car and they gladly hand you a carfax. If it was worth a crap, the dealers wouldn't hand them out like business cards. Agreed. I would rather see a car fox, or a note from the PO. At least I would entertained.

GBA 88West LA wrote: i use CLUE everyday at work and just like carfax it is prone to miss stuff, they are nice to have but theres no substitute for a good inspection by potential buyer if he or she knows what to look for Agreed. I've bought and sold many salvaged vehicles, way back in highschool I was driving a Jeep that I was eventually going to sell. I was giving a ride to a kid who lived in the same area as me and went to the same...

Carfax is one tool you can use to evaluate a vehicle. We bought a 83 Westy off of the Samba here. It was advertised as a one owner, California vehicle with 82k on it. This is a couple years ago, but if I remember correctly the carfax report had dates, millages, no new title entry and locations that supported that claim. I know Carfaxs can not tell the whole truth. For instance, any accident that is not fixed by an insurance claim will not...

JPrato wrote: Carfax is one tool you can use to evaluate a vehicle. We bought a 83 Westy off of the Samba here. It was advertised as a one owner, California vehicle with 82k on it. This is a couple years ago, but if I remember correctly the carfax report had dates, millages, no new title entry and locations that supported that claim. I know Carfaxs can not tell the whole truth. For instance, any accident that is not fixed by an insurance...

Carfax still shows my Adventurewagen as intact. That doesn't instill a lot of confidence in me.

I concur with the above. I have a vehicle that has been in 3 major accidents requiring lots of insurance work (all not my fault). The carfax is 100% clean. I'm almost thinking the insurance companies are in league with the carfax people to keep the reports clean. A dirty carfax means the vehicle is hard to get rid of and it increases the liability the insurance company has. Also carfax relies on the DMV database for title issues if...

Quite a few years ago I had bought a Dodge Grand Caravan from a used car dealer. After I had the vehicle for about three months, I received a nice nasty letter from my insurance company that I had failed to disclose that the vehicle had (previously and unbeknown to me) been in an accident and had been repaired. That is when I found out about the Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange (C.L.U.E.) reports. Apparently insurance companies use...

i use CLUE everyday at work and just like carfax it is prone to miss stuff, they are nice to have but theres no substitute for a good inspection by potential buyer if he or she knows what to look for

Got turned on to Auto Check. http://www.autocheck.com/?nf=3&nf=4&siteID=0&WT.mc_id=0 They report the odometer reading with the smog checks, something I don't think Car-Fax does, or at least the last time I used them.