Free Carfax reports 2/22 - 2/24

[rsolomon]

Thanks for the link!

CAVEAT EMPTOR I checked my "Manufacturer Buyback" car and it shows clean title, no lemon, no nothing. The car was repurchased back in May '01 by the mfg, so someone looking to get reassurance on that count would be SOL!!!

So we know Carfax is useless for accidents, lemon buybacks, ummmm....what *IS* it useful for? Luckily, thanks to HotDeals, I've never PAID for one of the worthless things!

 

[GooberedUp]

I used to think that Carfax shows accidents, but apparently the following (taken from the website) is what they actually show. Although, it looks like it missed the lemon history of a previous poster's car.

Totaled in an accident/Salvaged
Flood damage
Odometer rollbacks
Lemon histories
Junked Titles
State emissions inspection results
Lien activity, and/or
Vehicle use (taxi, rental, lease, etc.)

 

[mikecrof]

Well, here's my experience with carfax.... [/begin shameless plug]Was looking at a buying a Ford Taurus from a guy who was selling it through the paper. Seemed like a nice guy, car looked nice, was clean inside and seemed like a good deal. The car was like 12-18 months old and the odometer showed a little over 20K miles. He was asking like $10K for it, heckuvadeal at the time. So I run a carfax check on it, the car really has well over 100K miles on it! I called the DMV of the state where that title was issued to verify that it isn't some kind of computer entry error. It was not. So the $15 saved me $7000 which is really what the car was worth. I've used their service on many other cars that I have been looking at buying, in the very least it is another tool to help you determine if what the seller is telling you is the truth or not.[/end shameless plug] Of course your mileage may vary (he he, get it your MILEAGE) but I think its worth the money.

 

[Easygoing]

I dont see the link at the end of the story and the store says something about it ending on Sunday. I guess the deal is dead now.

 

[yesman88]

It saved me $11 for the car my gf just bought 2 weeks ago. Thanks!!!

 

[N8Magic]

Damn, I missed it.

 

[ConnCarl]

OSU, I'm going to have to go ahead and sort of disagree with you on a few of the points you made.

-Check what kind of registration the car had. If it was a Commercial, Rental, or Fleet vehicle, there's a much higher chance that it wasn't taken care of as well as if somebody had bought it. There are probably more dings, stains in the carpet, etc. and probably wasn't maintained as well.

Most commercial, rental, and fleet vehicles get regular maintenance in accordance with the manufacturer'specifications. There's no one in Fleet Operations looking over the shoulder of your average motorist, so when "somebody" buys a car, they may maintain it properly, and they may not. I have seen several vehicles with blown engines because some bone-head motorist never changed the oil. You can make whatever assumptions you like about the way the car was driven - everyone's heard the stories about how badly rental cars are allegedly treated, and you can't really prove or disprove such beliefs, anyway - but I don't think that it is prudent or responsible to assume that fleet vehicles aren't well maintained.

Definitely an irregular pattern of driving, and anytime you put a large amount of miles on a car in a short time it's not great for the car.

I don't know where this information comes from, but it is dead wrong. I'm not sure that establishing "irregular driving patterns" is a useful function of CarFax reports, but I can tell you that there is nothing harmful about accumulating a "large" amount of miles on a car in a short time. Studies by oil companies and auto parts manufacturers have proven time and time again that over 95% of engine wear takes place in the first few seconds of operation, and that the difference in wear between a 5 mile trip and a 500 mile strip cannot be measured even by the most sophisticated engineering techniques. This has been generally accepted for many, many years, hence the preference most folks have for used cars with "highway miles".

If you see one that's been at the dealership for over a couple months, chances are you can get a great deal if you haggle with them.

This is less and less accurate nowadays. Most dealer inventories are floorplanned today at substantial interest rates, so that they cost money every month that they sit on the lot. This cost is calculated monthly and included in the dealer cost for the vehicle. Since dealers rarely lose money on a vehicle, the end result is that the lowest price the dealer will sell the car for actually goes up every month the car sits on the lot. Dealers love to sell a new or used car the same day it rolls in, before they have to pay interest on it, and that is the time to get the absolute best price.

Your mileage may vary.

 

[OSUdrunk]

These were all the experiences I had when buying a car in January. I must have ran about 60 Carfax reports in a month or so. Of the 8 or 10 cars registered as rental or fleet, they were all scratched, dinged, stained, etc. whereas privately owned cars were in near mint condition. If you rented a car it's logical that you wouldn't take care of it as nicely as your own. Afterall, why would you care if you put a stain on the seat or a scratch on the doorhandle. You're not getting charged extra for it.

With so many people taking advantage of the 0% financing in Novemeber and December, may dealers were willing to cut a great deal on a used car because there was such an excess of inventory. Nobody was buying used cars, they were all trading in their 2 or 3 year old cars and buying new with no finance charges.

Why would a dealer want to hang onto a car that has been there for 2 or 3 months? Every dealer I went to said the same thing when asked why certain cars were heavily discounted and others, which were the same exact model, weren't. The answer every time was that they like to keep a car on the lot for no more than 30 days, at which point they heavily discount them to get rid of them. Maybe this is only the case where I live, near a large city where there's dealers every 500 feet competing for your business.

I found a car that had been on the lot for about 2 months and ended up getting it for around $2000 under the Blue Book wholesale (trade in) price, which is about $5000 below the Blue Book dealer price. I got the dealer to knock off around $2500 from the asking price by telling them they've had the car for 8 or 10 weeks and would never sell it at that price. They budged.