My insurance just got jacked up due to something my insurer found in data pull they got from Lexis Nexis, so I was allowed to order a copy of my report. Turns out it was an insurance claim on my son that got attributed to me so no harm no foul.

But this report was very interesting for another reason. It listed every claim involving the drivers on my policy AND every vehicle on my policy, regardless of who owned it at the time.

So so I just learned that my Carfax-accident-free XK8 that I purchased in Feb 2017 had a $13k personal injury claim in 2016 (which is apparently still open) and a $5k collision claim in 2012. I can see where the PI claim might not show.

So fair warning on the confidence level in those carfax reports

 

Carfax should be viewed as a guide, but never considered to be perfect or infallible. It can miss quite a few incidents in the history of any vehicle, especially those never reported to an insurance company. Buyer beware remains the order of the day....

 

I agree with Jon89, retired from the automobile business I have seen many inaccurate reports many times due to poor or lack of information given to internet based damage reporting services. These services rely on insurance company reports as well as annual State Safety reporting. My XK8 has a mileage discrepancy clearly due to an error to keypunch of its mileage with a state inspector. You would be surprised how often this occurs at least in my state. Both sides of the coin. People may pass up a perfectly decent used vehicle due to the error as well as receiving a poor trade value next time your ride is traded back in on your next purchase.

 

agree'd. carfax is a guide, not the bible. Anything that happens to the car that the insurance doesnt know of, doesnt get recorded. Also, if the car went to a private garage, carfax will never know about it either. so if a car had a serious problem and was in a garage for weeks at a time, you'd have no idea

 

And even when an insurance company is involved there are different policies about reporting. And, state-by-state you'll run into differences as to what constitutes a 'branded title' and so forth.





For that matter not all dealerships report to Carfax either.

Cheers
DD

 

I've looked at around 30 Carfaxes a day on a busy day. I've seen many times a car get an oil change and miles reported like this: oil change. Miles 56,000.
Next entry: inspection performed. 54, 388 miles
Alert! Possible odometer rollback!
A bad entry by someone rounding up miles or putting an about causes that. I've had good luck with them correcting these types of things. Other things not so much.
I've seen "it hit a pole" & "it hit a cow"
I've seen accurate stuff and complete misses.
If it's on there it's on there. If it's not that doesn't mean squat.