Carfax vs AutoCheck

[WaHoo]

So...there is a LC in my area, that is showing 1 owner, clean CarFax...I was pretty interested in it for a while...needed to do some more research on the maintenance history and was digging...got a flag on CarGurus that there had been frame damage reported.

I guess my question, what kind of frame damage could there have been and had ABSOLUTELY nothing show up on CarFax? Second, could it have been a report made in error? I intend to go look at it, and I will ask the seller about it and see what they say. I am certainly not afraid of something like that if it has been repaired properly...but they are asking a "premium price" for the LC.

I don't put a whole lot of faith in single source reporting, but this was odd...I mean if you were to look at the CarFax only, you would think you found a great one. BTW, if anyone is in the NoVA area and looking at LCs, PM me and I will tell you which one it is. I would prefer not to broadcast something like that if one of the reports is in error.

 

[jdayment]

I worked at Carmax and we used AutoCheck many times there would be discrepancies between the two reports carfax vs autocheck it all depends on how the damage was reported and who reported it I have seen mileage reported incorrectly many times due to a typo have also seen accidents incorrectly reported due to misplaced digits in vin numbers as well.

 

[97 AZ LC]

I've seen them vary on accident reports as well. With some more legwork you can try to track down the source report. Their description of the source is often vague but you can ask them for more detail. I've been able to get two "accidents" changed. In one case I got an "accident", which was actually just a broken headlight, changed to a "minor accident" by both services by providing a police report. In another case I got Autocheck to delete a reported accident by asking for the source of the data, which they could not provide. It said "state agency" or something like that, I checked all state agencies, found no accident. Confronted with this information they just sent me an email that the entry was being deleted. In other words they showed no confidence in their own data.

In any case with some more legwork you may be able to find out who's right and who's wrong. Of course as a buyer the car may be gone by the time you get the information.

 

[dr335i]

Simple Answer

Autocheck is owned by Cox automotive who also owns a company called Manheim that handles wholesale dealer auctions. Pretty much if a vehicle has ever been turned in on a lease, traded in to a new car dealer, or really anything besides private party sales, it's been to a manheim auction.

At that auction they do a visual inspection and if they deem a car "Structural Damage" it will show up on the autocheck as frame damaged (recently it's been popping up on carfax's too). Honestly their inspection is a guy with an ipad going around the car and if he deems a fender, or 1/4 panel, or door has been replaced he's probably going to label it Structural. It's a liability thing for them.

It does hurt the value because it shows up on autocheck and if anyone ever takes it to trade it in the dealer is going to use it as a tool to steal your car from you but just go and get it inspected, use common sense, and you'll probably get a good deal on a good car.

 

[flintknapper]

I wouldn't put much faith in CarFax reports....aside from number of owners and status of title/leins, etc...

Service records and damage reports will always be suspect to me.

I ran a CarFax just for fun on my 80 series a couple of years after my wife hydroplaned it off the highway at 65 mph. The damage nearly totaling the vehicle. Not a mention of it on CarFax. Almost non existent service records because I DO the all the work on it and have had the vehicle since it was 3 yrs. old.

 

[WaHoo]

Simple Answer

At that auction they do a visual inspection and if they deem a car "Structural Damage" it will show up on the autocheck as frame damaged (recently it's been popping up on carfax's too). Honestly their inspection is a guy with an ipad going around the car and if he deems a fender, or 1/4 panel, or door has been replaced he's probably going to label it Structural. It's a liability thing for them.

It does hurt the value because it shows up on autocheck and if anyone ever takes it to trade it in the dealer is going to use it as a tool to steal your car from you but just go and get it inspected, use common sense, and you'll probably get a good deal on a good car.

^^^^This...is exactly what is showing up, and exactly what should happen if someone tries to buy this...

 

[geanes]

Carfax is largely useless in my opinion. I did a Carfax report when I bought my LX and feel it was a HUGE waste of money. Since most of the maintenance was done by the owner (oil and all fluid changes) and many places don't report to Carfax, there was a HUGE gap. I got more info by creating a "Lexus" owners account and viewing that history for free. Thankfully, the PO of my LX had receipts and photo documentation of the services he had completed himself. I've continued that trend and document everything I've done. The specialist I use here in Austin doesn't report to Carfax so my TB/WP job won't show up.

 

[97 AZ LC]

I wouldn't put much faith in CarFax reports....aside from number of owners and status of title/leins, etc...

Number of owners is often sloppy and inaccurate. They pick up things like removal of a lien, removal of a spouse's name, etc., as ownership changes. It's largely speculative on their part and they shouldn't pretending that it isn't, but they're struggling to be perceived as offering value that is commensurate to their price.

 

[ScubaJon]

the only time they are worth anything other than # of owners is if they show damage.

If the damage is not reported by the insurance companies and lots of them dont Statefarm 6 ish years ago did not. I purchased a 05 vette that had a clean car fax and autocheck. Went to insure it and state farm said you do know its been in 3 accidents one for 28K damage. It was in there records because the prev owner was insured with them.

I was a bit peeved and a clean car fax don't mean squat.

 

[diego355]

Carfax, Carproof, etc.
Completely useless, just use it towards your advantage to lower the price if you find anything on the report.
How do I know this? When I got my LX it had a spot on clean history... not really.
It turned out it had a salvage title.
After lots of searching around I found out that if the accident is not reported thru insurance it will never show, if the repair shop is not associated with Carfax it will not be reported.

As I mentioned before, just use this towards your advantage to lower the price, ask the owner for service records and go to your nearest registry to check the title of the vehicle.
(Im not sure if that can be done down there but here in Canada you can go to any registry and ask for a VIN check)

 

[JB2004LC]

I agree that Carfax is mostly useless. The Carfax on my LC showed multiple visits to the dealer that appeared vague and sited them as service visits. Once I bought the LC and had AC problems I created a owners account on Toyota’s website to access their vehicle history which is pretty detailed. What I found was the vehicle had been in multiple times to the dealer for a AC issue that they could never resolve. Because they also had the oil changed at those visits, the Carfax shows up more like a service visit or sometimes not at all. Looks like the owner then traded it in and thus I now own a LC without working AC. Before I found the Toyota history I took it to the dealer for my AC problem. They could not figure it out either but that record does not show on even the Toyota service history??

 

[viniaz]

All of them are using pretty the same data sources, basically it's NMVTIS database. The most difference is how they format and present that information to you. Plus, they put some stat data like average market price, manufacturer recalls, etc. You may compare both reports and see how identical they actually are:

Carfax - 12345678901234567
Autocheck - 12345678901234567
Almost raw NMVTIS - WVWAD63B05E055731