How can Carfax be soooo wrong?

[Rick Lee]

That E46 is long gone, so it doesn't matter anymore. I actually have two former co-workers who work at Carfax, but haven't talked to them in a long time. They're in marketing.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by rammstein

I kinda halted my car search because the wife and I started down the road of trying to buy a house, but we've since decided to table that for a year. So now I can look again, but with the house purchase looming, my budget has dropped to about $30k. So I've been investigating stuff at that level. If your turbo was $30k I'd buy it now, but you'd be insane to do that . For $30, it looks like I could get a pretty minty E46M3. Or I could wait for the Focus RS to come out which should be in the mid 30s (probably high, but for a new car with warranty I could probably justify this in my head). Whatever I get needs to be dead-nuts reliable as it will be a daily, so I have to disregard a lot of the older and/or higher mileage stuff. Also have to disregard anything modified as I am done dealing with headaches (something like an exhaust or wheels is fine).

I'm already contemplating keeping it. For $30k I'd never sell it.

Post a thread with your criteria, there are lots of excellent new or nearly new options for $30k. But if reliability is high on the list, you can scratch the E46 M3........

Originally Posted by Steve Carlton

Try contacting Carfax to get it removed. They're very responsive and reasonable.

There was a guy in Rennlist that had an erroneous accident entry on his 997.2 Carfax that prevented him from trading it in to a Porsche dealership. He purchased the car Porsche certified with a clean Carfax, and the accident showed up when he returned to trade in the car at the same dealership. The accident showed up as before his purchase, but the car had passed the CPO inspection and was certified as never being wrecked. He tried fighting on his own, including having a bodyshop inspect the car, but Carfax wouldn't budge. It took the dealership calling Carfax to get the entry changed.

Back story - dealerships that sell "Carfax Certified" used cars pay somewhere between hundreds and thousands per month to Carfax. I looked into a Carfax dealer program but even their lowest level is cost prohibitive for what I do. So it's not surprising that a large dealership representing thousands in revenue to Carfax has a more convincing voice.

[porsche4life]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

Back story - dealerships that sell "Carfax Certified" used cars pay somewhere between hundreds and thousands per month to Carfax. I looked into a Carfax dealer program but even their lowest level is cost prohibitive for what I do. So it's not surprising that a large dealership representing thousands in revenue to Carfax has a more convincing voice.

This just makes a carfax even more suspect. Whats to stop a dealer from getting a legitimate mark taken off a claim to make a car worth more? If its all based on how much $$$ you given them its just a ripoff....

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by porsche4life

This just makes a carfax even more suspect. Whats to stop a dealer from getting a legitimate mark taken off a claim to make a car worth more? If its all based on how much $$$ you given them its just a ripoff....

I don't know how they did it, but Mrs. Lee's last E92 looked as clean and pristine as they come, got it from the dealer here in Scottsdale, but it wasn't a CPO car. They were coy as to why it wasn't CPO, but they threw in a 5 yr. warranty with the deal, so I didn't care. Carfax was clean. When Mrs. Lee got into a fender bender with the neighbor, the body shop that resprayed the bumper called me down to have a look. They had it stripped and there was Bondo there. It was an expert repair, but it didn't show on Carfax and the dealer probably knew about it, which is why they didn't make it a CPO.

[rammstein]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

I don't know how they did it, but Mrs. Lee's last E92 looked as clean and pristine as they come, got it from the dealer here in Scottsdale, but it wasn't a CPO car. They were coy as to why it wasn't CPO, but they threw in a 5 yr. warranty with the deal, so I didn't care. Carfax was clean. When Mrs. Lee got into a fender bender with the neighbor, the body shop that resprayed the bumper called me down to have a look. They had it stripped and there was Bondo there. It was an expert repair, but it didn't show on Carfax and the dealer probably knew about it, which is why they didn't make it a CPO.

I looked at a 1M that was CPO'd with OBVIOUS shoddy repair work to the rear bumper. Also had a 'clean carfax'. Had passed through a dealer in Chicago with a shady reputation so my antenna was already up, and when I got about 10 feet away I saw it. It was like a child had been given a spray paint can. Somehow, the dealer CPOd it, then without ever selling it to a third party it ended up at a used car lot in Delray Beach.

[T77911S]

Originally Posted by Nickshu

Carfax is joke. Ignore It

thats always been my point of view.

it only shows what has been reported.....if that

[BeyGon]

the CarFax on my 2001 Z3 Coup showed damage to the hood and fenders. I had it in different body shops for different problems but none of them ever found the damage. The paint was original and the tags were all in place, no overspray, nothing. None of the body shops ever found anything. When I went to sell it one of the buyers came over with the CarFax showing damage and then didn't buy it. Even though he couldn't find anything to match it.

[bmcuscgr94]

Not Car Fax but in a similar train of thought

CarMax Accused of Selling Unsafe Cars with Open Recalls