Used Cars: Checking into Their Past
Last year, over 18 million used cars were sold off of new car dealer lots. Most people think that most of the used cars sitting on those lots are trade-in. In fact, only about half of them are trade-ins. Fully one third come from auctions, with the remainder coming from outright purchases the dealer made.
That auction number is most significant; a decade ago, less than 10 percent of a dealer's inventory was made up of vehicles obtained at an auction. Used to be, auction cars were like the dogs and cats you'd see at a shelter -- most times you weren't sure what you were looking at in terms of past injuries and whether or not it's been well-cared for.
Nowadays, that stigma is fading. Many cars obtained at auctions are stand-up vehicles, perhaps former lease vehicles that boast up-to-date maintenance records. Still, there are the ones with unknown pasts, and that's where Carfax comes in. Most, if not all, new car dealers run a Carfax report. Carfax is in the business of providing a history of a given vehicle in terms of accidents it may have been involved in, whether it has an odometer problem or salvage title, whether it was a rental or fleet car, things of that nature.
Though we applaud dealers for providing Carfax reports, we still think it's a good idea to sign up for Carfax on your own; chances are you'll also be considering vehicles for sale by private owners as well. For $35, you get unlimited queries. We'd say that's money well spent.
John DiPietro, Automotive Editor
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- John DiPietro July 17, 2008, 2:53 PM
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- Carfax, Used Cars, Vehicle History
I don't trust Carfax for very much. My friend's 2001 Protegé has been in three major accidents, but its Carfax is spotless.
I wouldn't trust CarFax either, at least on its own. I have seen CPO'ed vehicles with a clean CarFax reports that have evidence of major body damage.
CarFax is a data service. As computer geeks like to say, when it comes to data, garbage in - garbage out.
The absolute best thing you can do to protect yourself in a used vehicle purchase is to have both a body shop and mechanic inspect the vehicle. The charge is usually $100 for each service, which is a small price to pay to protect yourself from throwing thousands of dollars at a vehicle that may end up being, at best a money pit, and at worst an unsafe vehicle.
I would use CarFax as something to DIS-qualify a vechical, rather then as something that would qualify one.
IE. A car with a big accident on the CarFax report would be a much bigger RED flag, then a clean report being a Green flag.
Kind of like they test for drugs, a positive is an automatic failue... A negative, well, maybe you just got lucky.
Carfax isn't perfect but it is a good first step. I carfaxed about 200 cars from our company and only found a few that were incomplete.
Phil, that bring a good question: how does Carfax collect data? I've owned my car for 2 years but I don't recall Carfax checking any data. Or do they collect data from mechanics during every service?