[blucille]

So, 3 years ago, we bought a Saab 2002 9-5 aero, with only 11,000 miles, very clean, I had no complaints. I knew it had a tough life in Boston, had some dings and dents, and had some paint-work on the passenger's side, but it was all minor.

Just last week, my wife and I start talking about upgrading it, we head off to the dealer, about to do a trade-in, they tell us book value on the car is $9000, but once the carfax comes back, they offer us $6000. Yup, $6000. This is a 2002 9-5 aero, very clean, no damage, and only 40,000 miles.

The carfax was clean when we bought the car, now it lists "frame damage" back in 2003, before our purchase.

So, since the report was clean when we bought it, we paid full retail. We did no harm to the car during the past 30,000 miles, and now, we can't even get a reasonable trade-in value, because carfax has data now that they did not before.

Carfax (who has NO telephone number for these types of complaints) says that their buyback guarantee did not apply back then, and the only guarantee they did have at the time was if the title was branded (theft recovery, flood damage or a totaled vehicle) and carfax did not report this.

My statement after all of this is that carfax is Useless....it actually can have a negative affect on you.

-Lewis