Carfax errors
 

Just wanted to give a heads up as to the accuracy of the Carfax reports for those of you who may rely on them for a purchase. My son recently decided he wanted a Jetta (at least its German!) so we went hunting. Found what appeared to be a real nice one so did a Carfax on it and it came up clean so we made the deal and brought it home. A few months later the A/C compressor went out and during the replacement the mechanic started noticing evidence of a collision, he did some more snooping and found both airbags blown and neatly folded back in their space…none functional! I subscribed to Autocheck and ran the car again. Salvage title out of Colorado! I have verified this after some investigation. Not saying which service is better just that there are flaws.

I recently did a Carfax on a car I've owned for years, just wanted to see what came up. They had it listed as having service 300 miles away from where I live, several times. Either this car is slipping out of town for places unknown or Carfax screwed up.
I think the point is well taken. Everything that comes up on
their reports can't be taken for fact. In recent years they've grown rapidly but their information is not always correct.

None of this was discovered prior to the deal during a PPI?

It was a Jetta...didn't do a PPI.

Lesson Learned
 

A tough lesson learned...

My 88 had a clean car fax and a PPI done by a Porsche dealer that reported no prior body work and paint. After I totaled it, bondo was discovered/exposed in the right rear corner panel.

PPI's done by mechanics reveal only their arena of expertise. Second opinion of a good body shop could have been sought or a quick run around with a paint mil guage.