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Don't rely on Carfax
- Thread starter 1320goat
- Start date
How does that work? If you have a lift or a (I assume a b&w is a 5th wheel) hitch your vehicle gets branded?
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The gripe is.. it wasn't on the report when I purchased the truck. It was tagged on after I purchased the truck. Are you telling me that you wouldn't have an issue with that if it happened to you?
My title is clean. I made sure of that when the state sent the title to me.. It's not an r-title or salvage.
I'd be pissed. Even though the title is clear I still wouldn't buy a vehicle with that on the carfax at any price. Hope it gets resolved for you
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CarFax = as much information as they are told about !!
I had an issue once where the DMV person clicked "Not actual miles" vs "No Change of owner" when I refinanced my car. Took months to get carfax to remove it, they finally changed it from "branded title - not actual miles" to formerly reported not actual miles.
Carfax and AutoCheck are more than capable of making data entry errors. I've seen it with my parents vehicles.
I'm wondering the same thing. Especially since I'm looking at 5th wheel hitches. What about the trucks that come with the 5th wheel brackets from the factory?
Technically, wouldn’t that be grounds for a buy back from Carfax? It was reported after all and they just dropped the ball.
Interesting. Thanks for that. I wish it was more clear as to what this could mean. Because it also makes no mention of accidents. If you mangle a frame on a Super Duty, surely the truck would have been totaled. These frames are thick, it would take an insane crash cause that. So what gives? Possible it had a gooseneck or 5th wheel in and then removed?
Which brings me to my next question. Why is a 5th wheel or gooseneck considered structural damage?
Regardless of what non-sense was reported. My original point stands. Carfax is heavily relied upon. If they're this late reporting some things, you shouldn't put too much faith in their reports.
I feel your pain. I bought a 2014 Malibu from Hertz in 2015. (Say what you want about buying from Hertz but I shopped around and they had the best deal when considering trade-in value they offered for my old car so I went for it.)
It was the same exact situation. Bought with a clean carfax and in 2018 I tried to trade the car in at a different dealership on a Hellcat Charger and they looked at the carfax and saw structural damage so they offered me half of the normal trade-in value. I was livid. I got a copy of the report and same story, the accident was added retroactively. I took the info to the Hertz dealership and they agreed that it was a shitty deal and offered to give me a full trade-in value on anything they had on the lot, which is more than they had to do. They didn't have anything I wanted so I've just dealt with it for the last 3 years. I still own the car today.
Sorry for your experience. I have been there before. I still look at carfax for cars I'm buying, but I trust clean carfax reports a little less than I used to.
And I'll add one thing. I talked to a rep from carfax and apparently their definition of "structural damage" is really loose. It doesn't necessarily mean frame damage.
It was the same exact situation. Bought with a clean carfax and in 2018 I tried to trade the car in at a different dealership on a Hellcat Charger and they looked at the carfax and saw structural damage so they offered me half of the normal trade-in value. I was livid. I got a copy of the report and same story, the accident was added retroactively. I took the info to the Hertz dealership and they agreed that it was a shitty deal and offered to give me a full trade-in value on anything they had on the lot, which is more than they had to do. They didn't have anything I wanted so I've just dealt with it for the last 3 years. I still own the car today.
Sorry for your experience. I have been there before. I still look at carfax for cars I'm buying, but I trust clean carfax reports a little less than I used to.
And I'll add one thing. I talked to a rep from carfax and apparently their definition of "structural damage" is really loose. It doesn't necessarily mean frame damage.
"Buyback protection only applies to state reported title brands. It doesn’t apply to accidents or other negative records reported by commercial data sources."
It could very well have been rust on the frame or such. Being a Canadian truck, that wouldn't shock me at all. There may or may not have been true structural damage.
A 5th wheel/gooseneck does tie into the frame, which does change the structural strength of the truck. All auctions report aftermarket 5th wheel/gooseneck as structural damage.
Carfax is only as good as the information they're given. From their site, "Nobody knows everything, but a CARFAX Vehicle History Report is a great place to start and should always be used along with a pre-purchase vehicle inspection and test drive."
No rust on the frame or anything like that. I don't purchase or own rusty vehicles. It had to be something weird like an installed gooseneck hitch.
Thank you for your help. I'm off to argue with Carfax
Thank you for your help. I'm off to argue with Carfax
@13COBRA Realistically how much does something like this affect the value? I know there are certain people like myself who would never consider buying a vehicle with that on the carfax and I know others who don't care as long as they can get it cheap enough.
Not much. I might knock it $2,000 or so.
I’m wondering if the fact that it was originally a Canadian truck imported to the US had something to do with the lack of accurate reporting from carfax
@13COBRA what if your truck comes from the factory with a fifth wheel? Would an auction also have a gripe with that?
@13COBRA what if your truck comes from the factory with a fifth wheel? Would an auction also have a gripe with that?
It doesn't, Autocheck shows that it was reported at a Canadian auction, and it was purchased by a Canadian dealer. Didn't come to the states until after.
That won't show as structural damage because it was made that way from the factory.
Someone may have posted this already but I don't have time to read the whole thread so I'm just going to say this: I worked in body repair for about 5 years and not once did we ever report to Carfax, and neither do any of the other shops I knew of either. It's a service that the shops have to pay for and customers will pay out of pocket just to keep their accidents from being reported by an insurance company, third party, or whatever. It's worth checking a Carfax to see if any accidents were by chance reported but I would say that the majority of repairs are never reported, and I mean that by a huge margin.
If you want to know if a car has been in an accident just take it over to a body shop and ask the estimator if they would be willing to look the car over and tell you if it has ever been wrecked. It will be much more accurate and likely free and they'll most likely be able to tell you what was repaired and how big the repair was.
If you want to know if a car has been in an accident just take it over to a body shop and ask the estimator if they would be willing to look the car over and tell you if it has ever been wrecked. It will be much more accurate and likely free and they'll most likely be able to tell you what was repaired and how big the repair was.
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