Carfax not reporting much.

[collector_edi]

Is it possible to have your vehicle maintained and serviced at a dealer and have very little show reported on a carfax report?

I have a scenario where the seller indicates the differential is dry, etc. however I do not see any service records reported on carfax. Are the discussion of the axcel work a product of hard off roading/major mods or by virtue of simply driving the vehicle an x amount of miles? The vehicle has roughly 90k driven on it.

 

[gbell210]

Car fax usually doesn't show maintenance records. It shows major accidents reported to insurance, or if the title was transferred to another party and things like that. So if the car was a 1 owner vehicle, I would suspect only about 2 or 3 records on car fax. Showing the dealer had the title, then the new owner or something like that. SO its really only major things, like if it ever had a salvage title.

 

[erics_bruisers]

i had a car get hit, repaired via insurance, and it still comes up clean on carfax --

eeeevillllll --

e

 

[gbell210]

Oh yea... and I'm not sure if this is still true.. but at one time Arizona didn't have anything to register with carfax. My dad purchased his 87 4runner used in AZ around 1990, and when I did my first carfax in 1998 it showed nothing from Arizona.
There may be other states and I'm not totally sure about accidents with insurance. What I do know is it showed a my older car was in a wreck and mentioned a police report "accident with stationary object" in Minnesota, then it showed a salvage title probably for a junk yard in Texas; then reissued in WY, and I ended up with it in MT .
It also showed my parents Astro van was a rental rig in Utah.

 

[Fly Rod]

The Carfax I ran on my 95 LC showed two owners. Yet the original owners manual had the original owners name on it. The title tranfered to me also had the same name. Some how the carfax system interpreted the original owners move to the Boston area as a new, 2nd owner. Only one service showed up on this carfax report.

Moral of that story is, the information they report is noly as good as the information reported to them.

Fly Rod

 

[Capt. Jim]

i had a car get hit, repaired via insurance, and it still comes up clean on carfax --

eeeevillllll --

e

Me too. My 80 was clean on CarFAx for over a year after a major hit/repair.

 

[elmariachi]

Is it possible to have your vehicle maintained and serviced at a dealer and have very little show reported on a carfax report?

I have a scenario where the seller indicates the differential is dry, etc. however I do not see any service records reported on carfax. Are the discussion of the axcel work a product of hard off roading/major mods or by virtue of simply driving the vehicle an x amount of miles? The vehicle has roughly 90k driven on it.

Carfax is like the wormy little guy hiding behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz. Its a HUGE glamorous website that is selling spotty state DMV, recall and law enforcement data. Unless a police report is filed during an accident, there will likely not be a record on Carfax even though there may have been insurance claims and repairs. If you take an LC into a Toyota dealer and have the engine replaced it will not be in Carfax. Being in the car business, my recommendation is to use whatever you have in Carfax, but do not make assumptions that a vehicle hasn't been in trouble just because a Carfax is "clean." Service history data has to come directly from a dealer.

 

[re_guderian]

Car fax usually doesn't show maintenance records. It shows major accidents reported to insurance, or if the title was transferred to another party and things like that. So if the car was a 1 owner vehicle, I would suspect only about 2 or 3 records on car fax. Showing the dealer had the title, then the new owner or something like that. SO its really only major things, like if it ever had a salvage title.

That's what I thought until I recently bought a Toyota Avalon, and the Carfax showed a ton of maintenance records. Being skeptical, I called a bunch of Toyota dealers in the Houston area (where the car was located) until I found one that actually could confirm the maintenance records shown in the Carfax report. So I bought the car. But this is the only Carfax report I've seen with maintenance records, so I assume they're spotty at best.

By the way, I'm new on this board. I've been on the LCML for 7 years or so. I just sold my FJ60, and I'm looking for and FZJ80, and I've been reading tons of posts here for a while, both on the tech section and the vehicles for sale forum.

 

[elmariachi]

​

That's what I thought until I recently bought a Toyota Avalon, and the Carfax showed a ton of maintenance records.

My guess is someone had those planted there...meaning they were submitted to Carfax on purpose. When we last spoke to Carfax corproate about our dealer requirements, they said they were not yet aggregating service records.

 

[thekirk]

Interestingly enough, there's another service out there, that's only available to insurance adjusters. Mere mortals can't get access to it, but the last time I had to make an insurance claim for a totalled rig, the adjuster threw things from it back in my face when we were doing the valuation of the vehicle. This service reports any and all claims made on the vehicle thru any US insurance company. Supposedly, my rig had had at least two claims against it, which the adjuster used to try to lower the value on the vehicle--"See? It's already been in two accidents...".

Since I'd done the Carfax thing, and paid for it, when I bought it, I was a little shocked. I figured, well, at least I have a claim on Carfax, now, since I got the guarantee. Turns out that no, I didn't. Carfax only claims to have information that is reported to the DMV, not insurance claims. Soooooo... I had to research exactly what the two claims were for, and got the other insurance company to dig out the records from archives. Both claims fortunately were for under $500.00, and only one was ever paid out on, and that was for a "shopping cart ding..."

Took that back to the adjuster, in my case, and told him that he wasn't going to get away with it, soooo... we settled for three grand more than I paid for the truck the previous spring. I cannot overemphasize the importance of buying Toyota, in the first place. Haven't lost money on one, yet.

Basically, Carfax really isn't worth the money, at least for the guarantee, unless there's something actually reported to the DMV, like a total loss. If it isn't reported to the DMV for something major, it won't be on there, and then they're not liable for a dime. You'd actually have to prove that the vehicle had been reported to the DMV, the DMV had it on record, and that Carfax missed it. Which isn't so easy to do, I'm afraid. Read the fine print--I'm not sure I'll ever buy a report from Carfax again, at least the "guaranteed" one.

 

[collector_edi]

Carfax Not Reporting Much

How does one determine if the vehicle has been regularly maintained? I am interested in one that had 2 previous owners. I do not see any service records done from within carfax. I have pulled reports in the past and witnessed maintenance logs.

Is there another way to track down maintenance records if you do not know the previous owners?

 

[elum]

carfax = waaaaayyy overated!!!!

 

[elmariachi]

How does one determine if the vehicle has been regularly maintained? I am interested in one that had 2 previous owners. I do not see any service records done from within carfax. I have pulled reports in the past and witnessed maintenance logs.

Is there another way to track down maintenance records if you do not know the previous owners?

It takes some effort. You need to use carfax or DMV records to find out who owned it and where. You then need to call all the Toyota dealers nearby until you find the service department with the records. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. I am shameless....I'll call previous owners for information. I did this on an FJ-60 with odometer tampering and wound up getting the truck for free.

 

[collector_edi]

Glad to know. I am tired of shelling out $24.95 for a full months worth of vin checks. I have been in the hunt for a landcruiser since 1/2005.

 

[elmariachi]

Glad to know. I am tired of shelling out $24.95 for a full months worth of vin checks. I have been in the hunt for a landcruiser since 1/2005.

I think its probably worth it...I just don't rely solely on what's in a Carfax to make a decision.