Can you help out with a CarFax Report, PLEASE!

Hey guys, I know I'm going to get flamed for this... but I've already given lots of money to Carfax in the past, so I'm sure they won't mind if someone helps me out. I'm looking at an M5 for a daily driver and it's got 17 records on it... which may not be a problem with 3 owners, but I'd feel better if I knew more. WBSDE93423CF92408 Thanks! You can post results to the thread or email me directly: mjbird atsign gmail.com Michael

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I looked at three cars in the past year that had clean Carfax's, but had been totalled. I don't know how they get around it, but they can and do. As a police officer you get where trust very few and have everything checked. On another note, I was in the process of buying a 1984 Targa from Victory Motor Cars in Houston. Had my inspector on the way to do a PPI on the car and I was told by the owner that my inspector was not allowed on his property. When asked why, I was told that he runs off customers. My inspector, who I have used for several years said he was told that he looks too close. He has saved me a lot of money. Anytime I buy a Porsche in the Houston area I use his service.

Clean car, 3 owner.

I hate carfax-- When I bought a used BMW a few years back, I had a 30 day temp tag on it. Well, after about 2 weeks the check engine light came on, I brought it into the dealership where they diagnosed and repaired a faulty idle control motor. I also had them do an alignment, oil change, etc. Well, when I brought the title in to the New York DMV to register it, as my 30 day temp tag was soon to expire, the odometer statement and title from the dealership had the mileage on it written as when I picked the car up at their dealership. I told them that I had been driving the car for 30 days on a temp tag and had accrued 6k more miles than the odometer statement and title said. They told me they have to go by those documents and issued me a title with that mileage on it. I think no big deal. Well, when I go to sell the car, I ran a carfax to show to potential buyers. . . . and it said WARNING POTENTIAL ODOMETER ROLLBACK. It showed this because the BMW dealership reported the mileage as actual, and then the DMV reported it as when it read on the title. Many calls and letters to carfax could not get this resolved. Fast forward to November of last year. We buy our Mercedes ML. Similar situation. We picked the car up when we were in Utah, they gave us a 45 day temp tag. Well, the car only came with one key and as part of the deal, this dealership was going to order a new key and pay to have it programmed. So after about 35 days or so, the actual day we left utah to drive to NY and then to GA, the MB dealership programs the key. We registered it in GA right before the temp tag expired, same situation as above. Lesson? SCREW carfax. I think its good reading, but don't think it is ever 100% or even 60%. Also, to the original poster, asking for carfax is against Rennlist policy.

i wouldn't trust carfax too much. my 993 was in an accident. i reported it myself to the dmv. when i went to sell my car i ran a carfax on it just for fun and it showed the car had never been in an accident...

Thanks all for the comments and the help. I agree that Carfax is not faultless ... and in tedwright's case, it's downright scary how easily things can get screwed up. But it's just one more tool to use. I was not aware that asking for a carfax report was against Rennlist policy (I remember threads on it, but not the policy) so I beg your forgiveness and I promise not to do it again. Michael

As others have said, CARFAX's value is when it shows an accident - then you know there was one. If no accidents are shown, then it's buyer beware, and better get an inspection (or know how to spot a problem). In my search for a station car (wound up with an '02 Accord V6 Coupe), there were several nice Accords that had accident warnings on CARFAX when I pulled up the free reports provided by the selling dealers. And the dealers were still asking top dollar, BTW! I avoided the accident cars based on CARFAX, so it worked for me.

+1

Michael, and everybody else that thinks it is "ok" to run a Carfax for others...... Whether you feel it is "ok" or not to run and whether or not you feel you are not hurting anybody, and whether or not you think Carfax "owes" you something for money you have paid in the past is neither here nor there and I will not comment on where I stand (you can read my past posts) but the SIMPLE FACT is that running/soliciting a Carfax report on Rennlist violates the Rennlist charter that you agreed to when you registered for this site and is grounds for PERMANENT BANNING. Steal at your own risk.

I agree with the above. Often times when I am looking for a car, I do get the urge to ask others for the use of their Carfax (dealer account) but have to think to myself "why am I trying to save a few dollars when we are about to spend $30-40K on a car." Just never made sence to me. My opinion.

Wait, did you just say all that with a British accent? By golly, I believe you did.

CARFAX does have the silly policy that you can't re-apply to run more reports after your month (or whatever the period is) expires. So if you pay and use CARFAX, but don't find your car within the window, you can't run more CARFAX reports - hence the need to ask someon else...?

Hey, I said I was sorry! Geeeeeeeeeeez. And I promised not to do it again. Really, I did. And I won't. Not to justify what I did, but I have purchased numerous Carfax reports in the past and they owe me a freebie report from some silly class action lawsuit that I'm a party to. So where's my free report, guys, huh? Yeah, some lawyer is probably using it right now so that he can buy some silly sports car with the engine in the wrong place.... I haven't bought the car yet, in case anyone was wondering... it's a 2003 BMW M5. Yeah baby, yeah! Michael