How Does Information Get On a CARFAX Report?
August 23, 2010 at 5:00 am Chad Upton 29 comments
By Chad Upton | Editor
It’s not unusual for somebody to completely destroy their car and walk away unharmed.
This happens because newer cars are designed to crumple on impact, just like a bike helmet made from dense foam. The frame, hood and even the power train components absorb the energy from the impact in order to help protect the occupants. Of course, air bags may also deploy, which protect the occupants from hitting hard surfaces inside the vehicle.
When an insurance company declares a car as a “total loss” it means they are not going to pay to fix the car; although, they may sell the vehicle to somebody who plans to use it for spare parts. That person may then fix the car and try to sell it.
Unfortunately, a car that has been in a major accident may have hidden safety and reliability problems. So, if you’re buying a used car, you’ll want to know its history.
If you’ve ever looked at a used car, you’ve probably come across CARFAX.
It’s a service that provides historical information about used cars. For $35 or less, you can enter the VIN (vehicle identification number) of a used car and get a report about its ownership, accident history, mileage discrepancies, lemon status, flood damage, fleet use (taxi, police…etc) and many other things the seller may not want you to know.
I think this is a great idea, but I’ve always wondered how they get all the information.
I was talking to a guy that runs an auto body shop, so I asked him. He said that he has done work on cars that were nearly totaled and the information did not show up on CARFAX; he had also done minor work that has shown up.
He said that CARFAX buys info from insurance companies and other sources. Some insurance companies have a non-disclosure agreement, where they will not disclose information about your car and its accidents and other insurance companies are willing to sell that information to make money.
I verified this information with CARFAX and it’s true. CARFAX gets information from thousands of sources and has over 6 billion records on file. They have deals with motor vehicle bureaus in every US State and Canadian Province, where they get information about mileage, flood damage, titles, lemon buybacks, accidents, thefts, liens and ownership transfers.
They also get information from auto auctions, car dealers, repair and service facilities, rental companies, state inspection stations, fire departments, law enforcement, car manufacturers, import/export companies and many others. That’s not to say that all companies of these types provide this information, but many do.
In some cases, they have mutually beneficial relationships. For example, car dealers may provide information about vehicles they service, but they may also request information about used cars that they want to take as trade-ins, buy at auctions or sell to their customers.
In any case, CARFAX warns that they may not always have all of the information, since there are many sources that they do not have access to. In 2005, they had 6,100 sources of information. Now, they have grown to over 34,000 sources.
CARFAX does provide a couple of free services that may be worth while if you’re purchasing a used car. The Lemon Check is one of them. This free service, will tell you if the car you’re about to buy was ever declared a lemon, meaning it was serviced for the same problem 3 times and bought back from the owner by the manufacturer. You definitely want to avoid a lemon.
You can also perform a record check with CARFAX for free. This will tell you how many records they have on file for the VIN you entered. If you’re thinking about buying a CARFAX report, you should try this free option first to see if it’s worth buying the report about the car you’re interested in.
Broken Secrets
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Sources: CARFAX (Data Sources) MSN, MyVin
Photo: Ian Hampton (cc), jasonbolonski (cc)
Entry filed under: Automotive, Demystified. Tags: auto, automobile, car, carfax, crash, history, insurance, price, quote, rate, report.
1.
Shannon | August 23, 2010 at 12:48 pm
Very interesting… I always wondered the same thing.
2.
Brian | August 25, 2010 at 2:23 am
I always hated the CarFax commercials that trick people into thinking it’s a 100% reliable source.
My car has been involved in 4 accidents in the 10 years and 200,000 miles I’ve owned it, yet my CarFax history is clean.
Why?
I’ve never once went through insurance.
Each accident was the other party’s fault and I managed to settle without filing an insurance claim.
I’ve fixed everything on my own at independent shops.
Clean history!
I would never lie about this when selling my car.
But can you imagine how many others would?
3.
mary m | October 14, 2010 at 9:55 pm
“Autocheck” picks up incidents “Carfax” does not. It is from Experion.
4.
d. lassoff | July 5, 2011 at 7:52 pm
Went to Carfax and entered the VIN and clicked for the Lemon Report, but was refused saying I had to buy the information.
5.
vin check (@CheckVin) | August 17, 2011 at 8:07 am
There also another service provider, vin-wiz.com. Now they provide free vin check service. They also offering unlimited vin check report generator in cheap rate. check out this –> vin check
6.
Dan Johnson | September 3, 2011 at 3:38 am
“”newer cars are designed to crumple on impact, just like a bike helmet made from dense foam”
That’s total bullshit if cars where made out of one solid peace that would be true but the Fact is that there are not made out of my solid peace . Cars are made out of thousands of parts and if your smart enough to see the truth its that cars are designed and made to brake be damaged and fixed!! That’s why theirs parts sold at your local dealer and part stores.
I spend $35 on some stupid carfax that didn’t show me anything about a car i wanted to buy. All it had in the cars history was when and where it was registered and date of registration lol.
WAIST OF MONEY I DONT RECOMMEND CARFAX IT S NOT ACCURATE INFORMATION IF IT EVEN IS IT DOESN’T HAVE ENOUGH OF IT!! DON’T WAIST YOUR MONEY
7.
L Johnson | September 19, 2011 at 2:30 pm
Deer Dan,
At 3:38 in the morning, perhaps you ought to have been sleeping instead of trying to spell. You may well have had some valid points to make, but everyone who has reads your post must think you are illiterate. I pray you get some reading help.
8.
Fred McCutty | May 5, 2012 at 8:30 pm
‘everyone who has reads your post’ amazing that you try to call someone out on spelling and get it wrong in the process.
9.
Good Guy Greg | February 2, 2012 at 6:18 pm
I don’t understand why a car can only be designed to crumple if it is made from one piece? Look at the underside of the hood on almost any modern car and you’ll see very uneven ribbing in the sheet metal. This isn’t a stylistic design element, it’s done to control how the hood absorbs the energy from a crash (when it crumples). Maybe you were just joking around though, every word you used that can be spelled two ways, you spelled the wrong way.
10.
miok | November 28, 2012 at 5:19 pm
youre an idiot. cars are made to crumble to take the energy out of collisions. but you probably did not go to high school so you missed the science class that talks about kinetic energy.
11.
Angel Grace | September 20, 2011 at 11:49 pm
Deer L Johnson, L must stand for LOSER!
12. articles | Why a vehicle history report isn't enough | October 10, 2011 at 10:53 pm
[...] it is important to understand how information gets onto a vehicle history report. AutoCheck and CARFAX get this information by purchasing it from insurance companies, car [...]
13. articles | Why a vehicle history report isn't enough | October 28, 2011 at 4:49 pm
[...] it is important to understand how information gets onto a vehicle history report. Both AutoCheck and CARFAX get this information by purchasing it from insurance companies, car [...]
14. My boss wrecked my new Tundra CrewMax 4X4!! - Page 4 | November 19, 2011 at 1:13 am
[...] [...]
15.
din | November 20, 2011 at 10:52 am
went to see a 2007 jetta and the only carfax the dealer could not show me was an entry at 26 miles in 2007. the car in question now has 104k miles .. my question is how could a 2007 vehicle have no reports expect at 26 miles in 2007 !!!!!don
16.
Brian C | February 2, 2012 at 6:11 pm
Did you even read the article? Once you read the article, you will understand how car fax works and then you’ll understand how it can only have 1 or even 0 entries.
A clean police background check doesn’t mean you didn’t commit any crimes, it just means you didn’t get caught. Same thing with car fax, there’s no guarantee they will catch everything.
17.
Roger Davolt | February 21, 2012 at 2:58 pm
Don’t always believe what you read. It was put on paper by someone probably not as smart as you. Most things are not always as the appear to be. Watch any person running for a government job.
18.
Jason | March 22, 2012 at 6:05 am
We can never tell, this days we just have to be very careful, carfax is expensive I go to vinaudit.com for car history reports for only $9.99
19.
R.Massey | April 22, 2012 at 8:32 am
Carfax is B/S! It shows there are 5 records on my car when I have never wrecked my car. I went to trade my car in last night at the Nissan dealer where I purchased my car and was told my car had been wrecked, I have never wrecked my car ever the whole time I have owned it. I did have some guy driving a truck pulling a trailer who had a hinge pin fall off the trailer and landed on my hood creating a big hole in my hood but I did not wreck my car!!! Had I not veered after getting hit by this it would have come straight into the drivers side and could have killed me then maybe I would have wrecked my car. The dealership that I tried to buy a new car at is the dealer that replaced my hood so they have this on record. They tried telling me I wrecked my car and had overspray inside on one of the fenders, I told them if there is overspray then their bodyshop did it!!! So, no I do not believe Carfax should even be in business, I think the info they get is half ass at best!
20.
Donna B | May 4, 2013 at 10:09 am
If the insurance sells the info on a claim, and it ends up making your vehicle an letch to sell or trade in, then you should at least get compensated from the insurance co. We are in the same boat.
21.
KJT | May 4, 2012 at 1:34 am
R.Massey- It helps to read up on what the report is telling you. When a CarFax report or even Autocheck Vehicle History Report will come back with the term “Records.” A Record does not tell you if it is a bad report or record. It is just telling you the VIN you used came back with (in the example above by R.Massey) 5 records on that car. The records could be some regular service done on your car, the catalytic convertor was replaced, and on and on and on. This is why you need to read the report, especially the section that has recorded the records. For example, I got the AutoCheck Vehicle History Report on my 2009 VW Jetta. it came back first telling me the record has 7 records, but none of the “Records” were negative. They were all positive records such as completing a scheduled maintenance, repairing some pit holes from a cement truck driving on the freeway in front of me dropping pebbles all over the highway, including on my windshield, which left pit marks. I had the pit marks repaired and that was documented as a “Record.”
22.
marc99gt | September 29, 2012 at 1:27 pm
Exactly!
23.
Ben walum | December 29, 2012 at 6:30 am
Any used car in good condition should have a compression test on the engine and a inspection of other components before purchase. who wants a car that has been driven on very short trips or at very high speeds. the accident history is only half the picture
24.
i. varzari | January 16, 2013 at 12:50 pm
I had 2 minor accidents with my Nissan Murano since i purchase it brand new. The carfax show 3 accidents instead of 2. The funny part is that the dates for 3rd accident where exactly the same with one year apart. Some one sold to carfax the same information twice with the interval of one year. It does damage the car history more than the accident itself.
If carfax wants to make an honest business from this, they must provide with some details of the accident, otherwise should not be posted.
25.
KJT | January 17, 2013 at 12:29 am
CarFax is a scam. They could have had a legit and ethical business but money got them to do it a different way. I guess some of their reports are accurate, but a lot of them are not because like insurance companies they will take the $$$ instead of the truth.
26.
cassidy richard | March 17, 2013 at 11:49 pm
Carfax is not always accurate. The car we almost bought was drivin by someone else for a week then brought back. The same thing happen to us but we had it for two weeks. This is not on the carfax. Both of us buyers or thought to be buyers were able to take this car home from the dealership thinking we were approved and bought the car. Well aparently the dealership has ten days to obtain you financing, if they cant you have to bring the car back. In our case, we had to come back and sign a new contract for higher payments. Another week went by after signing the contract and they still couldnt obtain the financing. We brought thecar back. Not one of these incedents were reported to carfax and we had sex in the car. Haha! You better think twice before you buy a used car without warranty
27.
AndrewE | April 3, 2013 at 10:14 pm
I like carfax but it’s very expensive. I had to look for other alternatives. cheaper ones. I’m glad I found this link online and got my vehicle report for only $4.99 http://www.vinaudit.com/coupon=CACF_50OFF
28.
V. Rogers | April 25, 2013 at 11:48 pm
I save all the records from anything done on my vehicles. When I go to sell, I put the records in chronological order and place the pile right on the front seat. A car will sell a lot quicker when the maintenance history and everything else is sitting right there.
29.
KJT | February 10, 2013 at 6:09 am
I have no idea if this autovin.de is a reputable website or not. For car reports that go off of the VIN and use the car’s history in the USA, I would be hesitant to use a “.de” website which means that they are located in Germany. Carfax already has a lot of abuse in their system of reporting accurate and honest facts about one’s car history. I would stick with a company based in the USA to increase your chances of getting a semi accurate report, and if you do find something that is not accurate you will be in a much better position to try and correct the mistakes if the company is in this country. As far as Autocheck I do not know enough about this company to make a suggestion either way. This is my opinion and I give it here to help one avoid increasing their chances of paying for a report that would be more likely to be inaccurate and also be in a position to not be able to do anything about the inaccurate information coming from a website registerd in Germany. Ultimately it is your decision as to if you want to take your chance on a German company reporting an accurate Carfax report or not.