Pete280

is Carfax 100%reliable? Would all warranty work show up on carfax? Making sure i'm not buying a lemon, Thanks

Unlimited jd

iTrader: (5)

Some states do not require accidents be reported to carfax reports, my ex had an eclipse spyder that was twisted up pretty bad with a clean carfax

smcser

NO, it only reports what has been told to them.

FullAuto9

NO, I have seen clean car fax printouts on cars that I know had been wrecked. Don't take a car fax that a dealer has already printed out, pull your own car fax for the most recent updates.

ETA: I'm not saying they are worthless, they do catch lots of stuff on them, but 100% reliable, no.

tomtbone1993

iTrader: (3)

If the dealer that preformed the warranty work is not signed up with CarFax it will not be reported. You would be better off checking with a dealer's service department on the car you are interested in.

007joe

iTrader: (1)

they only show what was reported to them, and a recent incident won't show, also I bought a durango a while back (for parts) that was crushed by a tree, the owner only had liability, never reported it and it never showed anything. I only look at them for the motor vehicle records, salvage, TMU, flood etc. accidents happen and don't neccesarily mean the car is a p.o.s. call a dealer for recall/service info and look at the car with someone knowledgable, in my opinion.

vindicator101

Mistakes happen too. I had a friend trade a car in that had been owned by them since new and never in an accident but when the dealer ran a car fax, for trade in purposes, it came up as being in a wreck. Come to find out the insurance company reported the wrong car. It was their sons truck that had actually been in the wreck not the car.

Pete280

Thanks, I'll stop by a dealer and see if they look up the vin, wonder how carfax can honor the "money back guarantee" they offer is it's not 100% accurate?

ZP'd

Don't understand how they do it eitehr but as stated it's not that much better then the paper it's written on after seeing what my sone bought with a clean car fax report.

The smart thing to do is to take it to a reputable mechanic and have them check it out bumper to bumper.
Money well spent.. My son learned his lesson.

Too Stroked

I looked at a used Honda Civic last year being offered by a private party. I knew as soon as I pulled up that the front end had been painted. Further inspection showed plently of evidence of a pretty decent front end hit. The owner produced the "clean" Carfax report that the used car dealer he bought it from the year before had produced for him. I'm 99.9% sure somebody facked the report. This guy honestly didn't know. So beware.