How Does Information Get On a CARFAX Report?
August 23, 2010 at 5:00 am Broken Secrets 14 comments
By Chad Upton | Editor
It’s not unusual for somebody to completely destroy their car and walk away unharmed.
This is 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.
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.
9.
Angel Grace | September 20, 2011 at 11:49 pm
Deer L Johnson, L must stand for LOSER!
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13.
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
14.
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.