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Carfax - Inaccuracies

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Carfax • Public Citizen Objects to Carfax Settlement • CARFAX: Not Always All the Facts • How Can Used Car Buyers Protect Themselves? • CARFAX Settles Class Action Lawsuits • How To Contact CARFAX • CARFAX History --- Consumer Complaints • "Unlimited" Service • Inaccurate Reports • Refund Policy • Advertising Claims • Sellers' Complaints

Richard of Denver, CO May 25, 2009

CARFAX details all information to be provided in their "Free Car History Report", however, when you go to that link they do not give any such information and require a credit card payment of 35+/- to see the information they previously claim to be given for free. I am trying to get information on several cars my daughter is considering purchasing as her first car. Certainly she will either spend all of her money getting the information, leaving her with nothing left to purchase, or trust the dealership and get screwed even worse. This is claimed to be a free service, when in fact it's a lure to take money from unsuspecting consumers at a time when the economy does not support it

Eleasandrinho of Breaux Bridge, LA May 22, 2009

I am a Automotive Tech. and also perform collision repair, so inspect car's for various people. I have seen people complain that they received a CARFAX report and it shows no accident , and i inspect the vehicle and open the hood etc , and in some cases body repair is very evident by paint overspray , mis-aligned panels etc.

But this one main case in particular, a family friend was searching for a vehicle for his daughter for college. He needed something reliable for her since we live in Southwestern Louisiana an d his daughter would be going to college in north Louisiana in Monroe. Well he saw a vehicle that he was told by the vehicle owners,it was mainly garage kept . Well he looked at CARFAX before buying it.

It is a 2006 Ford Five Hundred , with a 3.0 Duratec 30 V6. He said the car fax came clean and clear and since all looked well he purchased the car. He called to us afterward , he said something was odd about the car. Seemed to have a pulling effect after a bit and also on general accelerating there was this weird noise that started to get worse as he drove it ,

Well he showed up and the car was a nice Ruby Red and externally seemed to be very in tact. Well we hoped in , because he said he wanted us to ride with him so I can hear the noise. As he drove when the engine got to about 3000 RPM there was this shudder, vibration noise, nothing really body wise but odd. When the vehicle shifted the nose went away until rpm rose again.

I made him pull into the nearest market parking lot . I popped the hood , because i wanted to look at the drive belt and tensioner and other things that may make an odd noise. Surprisingly after opening the hood , and looking toward the front of the engine side , you can obviously tell that that the vehicle had a severe front side passenger impact. It was apparent that the existing radiator support had not been replaced but "straightened out" , and very poorly , you could see the areas where the tac welds had broken from the header section, there were little holes where the welds were. and the retacing welding was awful , and the frame running toward the radiator support was just awful looking . Where the passenger fender met the frame it was so out of place.

Thus leading to the engine the frame seemed way to close to the engine , one of the drive belt's rear idler bracket seemed a little off by appearance, as if it may have had taken a light impact.

Also the entire side cover and drive belt and tensioner pulleys were filled with over spray from paint . Which i came to the conclusion was that as the engine RPM would climb the drive belt would start to skip and slip. I told him to start the engine , and lightly tap the accelerator to try and re make the noise. And it did the overspray, and possibly the bad rear idler pulley did not help. As he made quick revs you could see the belt skip and slip and the tensioner bobbing up and down as it did so making the noise the belt would as it skipped and slipped over the hopping tensioner. Since we were Only a mile or so out from the shop we were going to drive it there , and take it easy.

He pulled out and along we drove , and a tractor pulled out and he slowed and had to make an emergency pass not to get hit , as he did so , i saw him holding the steering wheel , and as the car shifted at higher RPM during passing I saw the steering wheel jolt at each shift , as if some suspension component was loose and drifting under the high acceleration , the we hear this loud chirp and clatter and the battery light came on and other warning lamps, and the engine did almost as if it was going to stop adruptly , but then picked up idle as he pulled over not far from my shop.

I again lifted the hood, and saw, the rear drive belt idler i had questioned , had come completely off, looks sorta like it had been yanked off by the belt , and the drive belt broken in 2 sections , most of it rapped around the back of the crankshaft pulley and other around the ac compressor .

The car is towed to my shop , and i put it on my isometric lift , and i see the passenger tire give a little , i look underneath and the lower control arm is damaged and the bushings are worn out on the front section , which im sure is what caused the TQ pull situation on the steering when he had to heavily accelerate . The outer tie rod was also slightly bent , and it was obvious someone had adjusted it to make up for the few degrees it had throw the toe off.

Richard of Easton, MD May 6, 2009

An ad for a 1969 Camaro Z28 was in our local newspaper (the Star Democrat) in Easton, MD. It listed his email address mb45@cox. He emailed a scanned title of the vehicle and about 40 photos. The VIN # matched the description and photos. He told us that the transaction would be completed through carfax.

We contacted carfax and found out this was a scam. We did receive the paperwork from "carfax" instructing us to moneygram a 50% deposit to a third party and we would then receive the vehicle and have 5 days to inspect it. If the car was as advertised then we would pay the other 50%.

We found out about the scam and did not send any money. But beware the 69 Camaro and Michael Baxter, he advertises in your local newspaper.

renae of wichita, KS May 3, 2009

Purchased used Infiniti and found out two weeks after purchase the car has been wreck, dispite carfax report being clear. Car has airbag lights on, dealer can not clear, costs to repair over 2000.00. I have heard a dealer can not sell a car with an airbag light on or they can be in legal trouble. Have a car that need a new radiator, and air bag repair. Dealer will only give 500.00 toward the repair and said I bought as is.

Dana of Irvine, CA May 1, 2009

My car was stolen on 04/26/09. I typed my VIN on CARFAX - It's listed there as a "BUY BACK GUARANTEE" car! I emailed CARFAX with police case #, Newport Beach Police, and was told after several emails that the matter was "being investigated"! I emailed that the stolen status of the vehicle is immediately verifiable through NICB and the police. It's almost a week and the car is still CARFAX BUY BACK RECOMMENDED!

I see that you have a number of complaints about this company, and wish to add my story so that people will know that CARFAX helps thieves to sell cars and does nothing to protect cars that were stolen! This company is irresponsible and is not a reliable source of information when it comes to purchasing a used vehicle. My car may have been sold to someone who may have checked CARFAX only to find out that it is listed as a CARFAX ONE-OWNER CAR with a CARFAX BUYBACK GUARANTEE! Even though I have emailed the police case number, the police phone number, and the fact that it is listed on NICB as stolen, they will not post this car as stolen! I keep getting replies that they will "investigate", however, with a stolen car, time is of the essence when it comes to recovering it. They may have helped the thief sell it!

Manish of Morrisville, NC April 3, 2009

Manish of Morrisville NC (04/03/09)
I bought my car in Jan 2004 and moved from NV to NC in Aug 2005.

Issue # 1: Carfax for my car now shows that NC DMV read my Odometer in April 2004 when my car was not even in NC.

Issue # 2: They also report that the mileage of my car went from 14K to 120K within a period of 83 days when infact my car probably did about 120 miles in the same period.

These things are terribly affecting the value of my car now that I am about it sell it and it still has only 45K miles on it. KBB shows the value of my car has 7000 and due to carfax errors I can only get about 3000 for it.

Mark of Buchanan, NY March 23, 2009

Mark of Buchanan NY (03/23/09)
Back in the summer of 2007, I was shopping for a used car, and I found one I was interested in using Cars.com. Before buying the vehicle, I ran a Carfax report on it, which showed me that the car had originally been owned by a car rental agency in Florida, but had no accidents or other problems. After buying the car, I took it to an automatic car wash one day and one of the fog lights popped out of the bumper as I was towel drying it. When I took the car to the dealer to repair the fog light, he noticed that the outside handle on the driver's door was loose and needed to be fixed. One of the keys I had been given when I bought the car did not properly fit into the key cylinder on the driver's door. I also noticed that the inside door panel on that same door was not flush at the top near the window, leading me to believe that it had been removed and not properly reinstalled.

A month or so after these problems surfaced, I was waxing the car for the first time and noticed evidence of paint overspray on one side of the car, indicating that the car had been repainted. The possibility that the car had been in an accident caused me to look more carefully at the car's paint, and I've also noticed that the paint on the front bumper does not quite match that on the hood or fenders (it's flat and not metallic like the rest of the car). All of these things lead me to believe that the car had been in an accident(s) involving the front and/or left side of the car, although my Carfax report does not show any accidents for this car.

While the repairs to my fog light and the driver's door were taken care of by the selling dealer at no charge to me, I now wonder if the airbags had been affected in an accident, and if they will work should I get into a frontal collision. Don't trust Carfax to give you the total history of any vehicle you are considering buying! If a car has been in an accident that was not reported, it will not show up on the Carfax history for that car.

Lynn of Chesapeake, VA March 19, 2009

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