Hey everyone,

I'm looking at purchasing a used 2014 F-Type... I've done some extensive research on YouTube and have browsed several threads on here. The carfax for the car I'm looking at shows two accidents, but no airbag deployments and it has been serviced pretty frequently, all at the same dealership (although, almost too frequently). With 47k miles on the car, I want to make sure I'm not walking into a money pit. Any thoughts or advice on what I should look out for? Happy to PM the carfax for anyone willing to dig even deeper...


Thanks in advanced!

 

Without much info and the accidents on carfax I'd say $25K in exc condition would be about right.

 

$25k? Know anyone selling one for that much?
Is a trip to the dealership every 1k-3k miles excessive / indicate potential problems? Or just good ownership?

 

For servicing, if they only do 1k-3k miles a year it's correct. Anything else could indicate problems needing rectification.

 

TY!
Hmmm... 6k/yr

 

Here are 30 cars asking prices. The double accident carfax is going to make the car hard to resell IMO. People want perfect carfaxs these days and there is no shortage of them.
https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-...&firstRecord=0

 

The car in question (pretty sure based on info mentioned from the OP) shows up in that search and based on that I would definitely avoid this example. The interior is ratty and doesn't look like the owner has been taking good care of it - I know certain parts don't wear too well but even so, it's pretty disgusting. As far as the Carfax is concerned, it's gone back to the dealer literally every other month between October 2017 and July 2018, then hardly driven since then, which suggests the owner got fed up with it.

 

Yeah - that's the one! lol
Thanks, that's how I was feeling. Dealer seems shady too.

 

you absolutely need to take any used F Type to a mechanic for a pre purchase inspection first. it will be the best $100-$200 you've ever spent. on a highly strung car with expensive maintenance, relatively, you have to be very careful. personally i'd never buy a car that's been in an accident, much less two. there are plenty of other cars out there...

 

On one hand a bad carfax can be an undeserved huge hit on a car's resale price. On another hand it can be your ticket to a barn burning great deal. But in no case should you pay an otherwise market price. Carfax is often wrong or misstated too, so if you do your homework and don't care about reselling it can be a great way to pick up a great car, cheap.

 

Not saying that car fax is totally unreliable but there's plenty of people out there who've had repairs done under the radar and vehicles with very minor repairs that you might find in a lot better shape. I think sometimes you have to weigh your options between the two.

 

Super grateful for all of your responses. I'm passing on the car - too many red flags at too high of a price.
I'll keep searching!

 

Thats smart. Carfax is so important, sometimes unfortunately. Think 20% off for a minor or mistaken accident (you'll never get it off carfax) or 30+% below market for a significant accident.

I highly recommend no snow/salt in the carfax history. It can mean the difference between lots of corrosion and like new condition underneath.

 

I really don't understand this mentality. Sure, you should check out a car that's been in an accident, but a cosmetic only accident is NOTHING to be concerned about. Hell I had a cosmetic accident in my C7 Z06 and now it's WAY better than it was stock. Have a 3 stage pearl paint job with full paint correction and clear bra which is 100x better than the shitty water based 2 stage paint job from the factory. Factory paint on ANY car these days is garbage, partly because of EPA regulations. If I can find a car with an aftermarket paint job, I'm going for that one over one that has factory paint. and 9/10 times, people only get aftermarket paint jobs after an accident or vandalism. Sounds like this car in particular may have other issues, But I'd like to know what the "service" visits were. For example, I just had mine "serviced" by getting window tint at the dealership and I forgot to ask them to tint the roof so I'm gonna have to take it back to get that done which means about a month between "service" visits for me.

Also, how would you see snow/salt in carfax??

 

I actually don't agree with the market's rejection of cars with flaws in the carfax, but it's just a fact of life. I think the reason is a supply glut in general, there are lots of excellent cars coming off lease/etc with low miles and flawless histories, so accident cars are easily shunned. Just a few years no one would've been the wiser.

Look for an all-southern state registration history.

 

PM Sent, lets make a deal :-)

 

Unless it is fully documented, you can't know if it is cosmetic-only or they had to bang out half of sheet metal on the car, then put layers on layers of filler on top of that. At least here in the salt region, any paint work on panels means that rust will show up there in a couple years.

Yes, but I still wouldn't trust paint shop's work unless I know them personally. Insurance jobs are never quality work and even shitty factory paint is probably better.

 

Well usually the accident has a lot of documentation in the carfax. They say where you were hit and what the damage was like. For example mine says something like "front and rear damage. no impact. no air bag deployed. no structural damage. car driveable" or something like that



Ok that's fair. I have the receipts for this job personally, but I'm sure a lot of people don't. I also came out of pocket about $20k on top of the $40k the insurance paid out to "upgrade" my paint as well as get a lot of carbon fiber parts so I had more of an incentive to keep receipts than the average bear. But I do perk up when I'm car shopping and I see a custom paint job either way.

 

Another buying tip is to pull previous destinations out of the Nav system during your test drive. Google map the previous owners home and the places they frequent to make sure they're worthy.

My car was leased to a Beverly Hills CA owner with a few exotics in the driveway in the Google Maps photo. She also frequented the Elite Modeling Agency. Sold!

 

@Racer X sounds so creepy out of context!