Success w/ CARFAX Report ?

[torch95red]

Has anyone had any success with reading a CARFAX report prior to buying a Corvette? Also, all the data they provide was it useful in aiding in your decision to purchase or not purchase the car?

Thanks

Mike

 

[Ripp 73]

I am not speaking from personal experience but speaking for a friend who is not yet a member of this web forum. When he was looking at his now 90 coupe he ran a car fax report and found out a lot about it. It showed that the title had actually never been titled because the dealerships that had it never titled it. He was the first person to title the car after 4x,xxx miles. It also showed that the car had been in an accident. A driver hit a mailbox in a neighborhood and took off the drivers side mirror. No other damage was found on the car. A little interesting to read, but he felt it was well worth the money to get. I would feel much more comfortable if I could do a carfax report on almost any used car before I buy it (unless it is a beater like my pickup) just to see if the seller is telling the truth or not.

 

[kingman]

You bet it helped!!!!!

It gave me the amount of times that it went to a dealership and what mileage was recorded.

Alan

 

[Eric]

Just keep in mind that Carfax only reports the info they have received. Sounds like a no-brainer but not really since not everything is reported to them. Case in point, my 1995 Monte Carlo comes back perfect with Carfax. Though the car has never had any serious damage, it has been vandalized (repaint), had hail damage (repaired), and was involved in a collision. None of this shows on Carfax, but since I've owned the car since new, I know it all really did happen. But, since the authorities were never notified, all incidents were handled between me and my insurance company.

Carfax does give most info, but call your insurance agent. They can run the VIN to see if any claims have been filed against the car, regardless of company. I've done it with evey car I've thought of buying and have had one that returned a hit through my agent but not Carfax.

 

[torch95red]

Thanks everyone, you've given me some ammo to pursue a '02 Millenium Yellow roadster.

Mike

 

[DoomDriver]

There are some disreputable people who fix up wrecked or old vettes and bring them to Canada to sell as good used. When I was looking Carfax showed one Vette I was looking at had been in three states with three owners in two years (suspicious I think) and had had an oil change at 46,000 miles while the odometer read 24,000.

Well worth the price in my opinion. Even with the car I bought it was clear that it was a one owner and had regular maintenance. That gave me peace of mind to close the deal.

Good hunting

 

[Chrisr]

As Eric and a few others have mentioned, CarFAx doesn't show everything. I feel it gives you a little something to start with. When I bought my '03 coupe, I ran a CarFax on it just to get info I may not have already had. It's worth the money, but don't take it as gospel though.

By the way, I did not know you could run a VIN thru your insurance company as Eric mentioned.

See, ya learn something new all the time here at CAC!!

 

[egldriver]

Carcheck

To all

I used carcheck when I bought my 99 vette. It came back with a clean report on everything. Before I bought it I took it to a Chevy dealer for a mechanical evaluation. They said that the car was great, but the history showed that it had been a dealer buyback. I talked with the maint manager, who thought that, based on the amount of nuisance complaints that had been filed, the car had been turned in by someone who got cold feet on having a corvette. In any case, car check completely missed this. After hounding them, they refunded my money, but it was a pain. I would have no confidence in carcheck.

Egldriver