Carfax accuracy

I've gone through over 40 carfax checks, basing some decisions on the reports. Now that I've found a car I'm interested in, I find out the carfax is wrong!?!? Carfax says the car had one owner, but I'm talking to the second owner! So is a carfax report that conflicts with reality a reason to forget about a car? Or, as I'm beginning to realize, is it just another data point in the search for a P-car? tom

Absolutly do not trust it. Had a car with $25,000 from one accident in body damage. It never showed up on carfax. Actually the car had six Insurance claims while I owned it, none of them were on the report.

Carfax is pretty much useless I'm afraid.

Carfax is a good tool for the seller but as a buyer I would not count on it. It is good because you could potentialy learn of something bad about the car you are interested in; however, if it comes up clear I would not trust it 100%. They certify but for a small amount, I think maybe $5K. In you case, just because the car has had 2 owners instead of one should not mean that you should walk away. If this is the car you want and the price you are willing to pay, have a PPI done for the piece of mind

I have done numerous prepurchase inspections on 996's and boxsters that had a clear car fax report, but had been in significant accidents. One 996 had the entire passenger rear side replaced, including the bumper cover, all the suspension/control arm components on that side, etc, the porsche part number stickers were still on all the pieces, and all the components were nearly new (on a vehicle with 50k miles). I have pretty much tossed out all reliability of a car fax report.

Someone hit my wife from behind in her Audi. there was a police report and the repair went through insurance. I had a carfax account set up when I was looking for my 996 so I decided to check out the report on her car. It came out CLEAN no accidents reported to the DMV! I couldn't believe it, what a useless tool.

This reminds me...look out for Katrina cars. Not all states have to give a flood title.

Tom, it's just another data point - nothing to get too excited about either way. As an extra data point: Talk to the current owner - get him to authorize you to speak to the current service manager for the car, and he can then pull the local service history, and full warranty service history for that car. Without the driver's permission it's more difficult - but still possible Lots of useful information in this report. Chris.

Look at it this way: Carfax is just like PPI !! when PPI doesn't find anything wrong, does that mean RMS won't blow up next week? PPI don't catch half of the issue also. if Carfax says there has been an accident, it means it had an accident, and you should walk away. if Carfax say there is no accident, it doesn't mean much. Carfax is only good if you find negative !! that's why you need a PPI on top of car fax. but PPI is inaccurate also. that's why you need some luck !!!

I had a Nissan Maxima that got into an accident (broken front fenders, broken radiator, bent frame). Insurance fixed it and I sold the car a year later. When I looked at the CarFax at the time of selling, there was no accident record.