carfax

jimbo585

jimbo585

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Anyone ever google their VIN number to either see what their old car was up to or what their current car's results are?

Well I searched the VIN for my Jetta and the dealer I purchased it from is offering the report for free? I can see the full report and it's saying it was offered for sale again back in April.

I've never purchased a used car so maybe I'm reading the report wrong but to me it looks like it's saying I don't own the car anymore. But there is no used car listing for it anywhere on their website...

It shows the entry for when I purchased the car 4/14/2011, but then it says it was offered for sale- at the same dealer- on 4/3/2012. Strange...

Anyone have suggestions or ideas as to why this could be?
 
So you straight up googled the vin?

I gotta try that for my taurus. Im pretty sure its either in mexico, or it was chopped up. Guy who bought it was pretty sketchy.
 
Yeah the only reason I could see it was because a dealer (the one I purchased the car from) offers it for free for some reason. Everything seems normal for the most part except that it was "Offered for sale" on 4/3/2012. Its in my driveway right now!
 
Carfax is worthless. I had an accident a few years back, went through insurance, and to this day it shows a clean Carfax.
 
No trust in CarFax here either.

Just the opposite of Mark's result...

Shows my truck was in a flood in 2005. Yea right, musta slept thru that one.

Bill
 
Carfax is horrible. When I traded in my last car, Carfax showed incorrect milage when my car was in a hit and run, it showed two owners - I was the only owner. Finally, it showed another accident, one I don't remember ever getting into. haha. The problem is, when you go to trade them it - dealers will try to wack you on trade in value based on incorrect info.

-Sparty
 
I bought my truck back in 09. The carfax was clean and I felt food about it. Fast forward to mid 2010. I get a letter from my insurance agent stating that my rates will be increasing due to my accident in 08. I called an said considering I bought the truck in 09 how do u suppose I wrecked the truck In 08. After some digging, the truck was wrecked however the accident didn't get settled in the courts until after I was the owner. How in the world It got on my insurance is beyond me. I don't trust them anymore either. I would have more confidence in taking it to a good body shop guy and getting him to see if he could tell if anything had been replaced.
 
Check the VIN on your paperwork against the VIN on the actual dash of the car. When I bought my truck, the dealer "sold" me on paper the wrong truck. They sold me another VIN they had stock. All the paper work had the wrong VIN, the VIN of a similar vehicle with a different color they had in stock. The only way it was caught is that I manually checked the VIN when insuring it. It was a mess. If I never checked it, who knows if it would have ever been caught. maybe the VIN your Googling isn't the VIN sitting in your driveway. It's possible, happened to me.
 
FivePoint.0 said:
Carfax is worthless. I had an accident a few years back, went through insurance, and to this day it shows a clean Carfax.
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The same thing happened to me. I had a 2007 Toyota Avalon that was it in the rear four months after I bought it and the repairs exceeded $9,000.00. When I traded it in the Carfax was clean but the dealer had a questionnaire asking if there had been any prior damage and, believing in karma, I told them about the accident. They dropped $2,000.00 off the trade-in and I thought that was fair. I had received $6,500.00 in diminished value right after the accident so I still came out ahead.
 
11Jetta said:
Anyone ever google their VIN number to either see what their old car was up to or what their current car's results are?

Well I searched the VIN for my Jetta and the dealer I purchased it from is offering the report for free? I can see the full report and it's saying it was offered for sale again back in April.

I've never purchased a used car so maybe I'm reading the report wrong but to me it looks like it's saying I don't own the car anymore. But there is no used car listing for it anywhere on their website...

It shows the entry for when I purchased the car 4/14/2011, but then it says it was offered for sale- at the same dealer- on 4/3/2012. Strange...

Anyone have suggestions or ideas as to why this could be?
Click to expand...

It probably was a data entry typo when the entry was first posted and should have been 4/3/2011. I work for a dealership and see things like this on a regular basis.

Bill
 
FivePoint.0 said:
Carfax is worthless. I had an accident a few years back, went through insurance, and to this day it shows a clean Carfax.
Click to expand...

:iagree:"Show me the Carfax" is a joke! Complete garbage. So many things do not show, and even more are not reported.
 
Yeah, I have often google'd VINs. Lots of new & used car dealers list them on their internet postings. We were about to buy a 07 Honda recently until I google'd and found a previous dealer had listed the car for 2k less. At which point I did do a Carfax to find the car had been in a couple accidents (the body looked excellent, but potential structure/undercarriage damage).

I do have 4 paid for Carfax's available that I pre-paid for, and would be happy to run a report for any VINs that you would like to see. We ended up buying a new Honda and no longer need the remaining Carfaxs. PM me with the VIN and I'll send you a PDF of the entire Carfax (include your email as I don't think we can attach docs in PMs).

JeffW
 
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there is no real reliability in Carfax. They can be up to 2 years late in reporting accidents and they take no responsibility in wrong information and whom they get the info from. I suggest doing a little GOOGLE search and seeing the Class Action Suits from past and coming to them. Save your $$ and do a formal inspection.
 
I agree that carfax is junk. My altima had both the front and rear bumper repainted. The front sustained enough damage to require them to replace the passeger side headlight.

Carfax was clean, and unfortunetly, I bought the car. A year the later the clear coat is peeling and fading on the rear.
 
killrwheels@autogeek said:
there is no real reliability in Carfax. They can be up to 2 years late in reporting accidents and they take no responsibility in wrong information and whom they get the info from. I suggest doing a little GOOGLE search and seeing the Class Action Suits from past and coming to them. Save your $$ and do a formal inspection.
Click to expand...

I don't disagree with you at all, but would only add that a Carfax can be another tool to use in making a decision. For me it paid off, and I am sure it has for others too. But it is the fool who depends on it as an end-all, be-all golden record.
 
Carfax (and similar services like Autocheck) only know what it's been told. No dealer, or mechanic, can be enforced to report everything to Carfax. So it's no surprise that it doesn't show all event history for a car. A "clean" Carfax report only means that it doesn't know of anything bad. That's different than saying nothing bad has happened.
 
swanicyouth said:
Check the VIN on your paperwork against the VIN on the actual dash of the car. When I bought my truck, the dealer "sold" me on paper the wrong truck. They sold me another VIN they had stock. All the paper work had the wrong VIN, the VIN of a similar vehicle with a different color they had in stock. The only way it was caught is that I manually checked the VIN when insuring it. It was a mess. If I never checked it, who knows if it would have ever been caught. maybe the VIN your Googling isn't the VIN sitting in your driveway. It's possible, happened to me.
Click to expand...

Just checked and it's the same. Wouldn't that have been something? No one noticing that until over a year later LOL
 
BillyJack said:
It probably was a data entry typo when the entry was first posted and should have been 4/3/2011. I work for a dealership and see things like this on a regular basis.

Bill
Click to expand...

Yeah, I called the dealer to ask about it and they said it was probably a typo but they can't control it- I would have to call carfax to get it fixed. I'm not really worrying about it since I lease the car.
 
Just noticed this too...they completed another pre delivery inspection in january of '11. I bought the car in April '11. Do they do those when the car first arrives to the dealer? Here is a screen shot of some records.

I've had the car for over a year so it's a moot point now, it's just more out of curiousity than anything!


ALSO noticed there were not 15 miles on the car when it was delivered on 4/14, there were almost 400..
 
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