How your CARFAX Report
can show if a used car has been stolen, VIN ID#'s falsified, flooded, totaled, been in an accident, returned as a lemon or recalled
All about VIN#'s, VIN Search, VIN Number Decoders & common myths about VIN decoders
If you buy a used car, you absolutely must get a
CARFAX Vehicle History Report on the Vehicle Identification Number
(VIN) AND have a mechanic inspect the car on a lift. If you do not do both of these, then do not buy that used car. You have been warned. The VIN decoder
keeps sellers honest too. You are about to purchase a used car for thousands of
dollars, don't get stuck with a lemon because you wanted to save $25 on a
CARFAX Vehicle History Report.
Also read our guide How To Buy a Used Car And Avoid Scams. It's the best used car buying advice, with our
used car bill of sale form, reviews of online used car classifieds, how to buy a used car from dealers or private sellers, negotiating with tough sellers, scams to
avoid and a list of questions for you to print out to ask the seller. Always run a
CARFAX Report on the VIN# before you buy & avoid scams. Is the odometer
rolled back? Find out now, not later.
Do a VIN Search Before you buy, any car is a Potential Lemon
There's over 2 million wrecks a year, even certified used cars can have a bad past, whether it's a Mercedes, Lexus, Honda or Toyota. Without a
CAR FAX used car history report, your chances of buying a wreck are
high. It happens every day to people who email me, learn from their mistakes, don't let it happen to you.
In September, 2005 CARFAX added the Flood Alert Advisory to their reports to alert you to check the vehicle out prior to making
the purchase. This vital intelligence allows you to spot vehicles registered in the areas impacted by hurricane damage such as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The
alert tells you if the vehicle was registered in a county declared a flood disaster area by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Thousands of cars were damaged when terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center. These cars were salvaged, rebuilt, sold at car auctions and have their titles rebuilt.
One way to catch these cars is by running a
CARFAX 30 Day Unlimited Vehicle History Reports option on every used car VIN number before you buy. The
CARFAX unlimited Vehicle History Reports Package includes the free
Safety And Reliability Report, giving you tons of useful information on your car such as crash tests, VIN decoder, safety recalls, reliability ratings all in one
report from JD Power, NHTSA, IIHS and Polk. All states are vulnerable to the scams that arise out of mass vehicle ruins.
There's no VIN Decoder for used cars made before 1981
Not even CARFAX can get you a car history report for cars before 1981,
because the VIN did not become a standard until then, and every car manufacturer had their own format, so you're out of luck. There is no VIN decoder for
this. But for late models years, the VIN decoder section of a
CARFAX report can help you tell if the seller is lying about the model, for example, calling it an EX, when the VIN decoder shows it to be an LX.
Other recent major vehicle disasters that might show up in a car title history:
Hurricanes Katrina, Rita & Wilma in 2005
4 Hurricanes, Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne battered the Southeast in 2004
Tropical Storm Allison Flooded 20,000 Houston homes and cars in 2001
In 1999 Hurricane Floyd flooded or totaled 15,000 cars in the Carolinas
In 1999 Hurricane Irene flooded hundreds of cars in South Florida
What a CARFAX Used Car History Report gives you
CARFAX Vehicle History Reports
search over 2.7 billion records from 5,300 sources, state DMV's, auto auctions, manufacturers, car dealers and repair
shops. A CARFAX Vehicle History Report on a used car VIN Number is your
tool in preventing you from getting ripped off on a used car. A car history report reveals more about that used car than the seller is willing to tell you. What a
CARFAX Vehicle History Report tells you:
Number of previous owners, when it was sold, what states it was sold in. Awesome!
Police accident reports if available for your VIN Number
Major accident data, including total loss, rebuilt wrecks, salvage titles & airbag deployment
Odometer rollback check, truth in mileage consistency check
VIN Number Decoder shows year, model, engine, place of manufacture & standard equipment
Lemon check on VIN number tells you if the car has been turned in under lemon law
If the car was flooded, totaled by insurance, has a salvage title or sold at an auction
Open recalls on your car, remaining coverage on the vehicle's warranty
Service records from GE fleet and more
Indication if vehicle has been certified pre-owned, leased, car rental, fleet or government vehicle
Date when dealer took delivery. Use this to haggle a lower price, it's sitting on the lot for months.
Dealers sometimes show you a CARFAX Vehicle History Report from before
they bought or traded the vehicle. Always run the CARFAX Vehicle History Report
during negotiations to see when the dealer bought that car. The VIN Decoder feature verifies your car is what the dealer claims it is.
Some car accidents won't appear in CARFAX history reports
Some municipalities don't supply accident report data, and some accidents below $1000 are not reported. Nothing is fool proof. That's why I stress so much that you
still need a mechanic look at the car on a lift to find accident damage not reported by the car history report. Vehicle history reports are only as accurate as the
data from their sources.
Get Yourself An Extended Warranty For That used Car
The best advice on this page is to get an extended warranty whenever you buy a used car. We'll review car warranty companies like
Warranty Direct. Be sure to read our chapter on
Extended Warranty Scams & Tips. It's a must.
Odometer Rollback Myths
Many people wrongly think digital odometers can't be rolled back. With digital odometers, the current mileage reading is stored
in a flash chip or an EEPROM. Anyone can remove the chip and reprogram it with lower mileage, so you must perform a
CARFAX Vehicle History Report on the VIN Number
to know for sure. When a car is inspected
the mileage is recorded, and when the title changes hands or it is traded in at car dealers, or turned in after a lease. As you look down a
CARFAX Vehicle History Report the recorded mileage increases
each year. If a CARFAX mileage event shows less mileage than the last
event, you know you got odometer fraud. We know a man who found a Lexus with a rolled back odometer when he ran the
CARFAX Vehicle History Report. If a seller lies about the odometer,
he may lie about the engine too, so the VIN decoder in the report will weed that out.
CARFAX also alerts you to potential airbag fraud
In some states, CARFAX
can tell you if the airbag was deployed in an accident, if police investigators check it off in the accident report. Airbag fraud is a huge and profitable scam.
When cars are wrecked, insurance companies pay for damages including airbag replacement. But unscrupulous repair shops keep the money without replacing the $800
airbag, stuffing the space with everything from crushed beer cans to peanut bags. Many companies sell fake airbag covers so that you falsely think you have an airbag.
Could you be driving around in a used car with no airbag, even though you think there is one there? You can't see through the airbag cover. That's why you need to
know if the car was wrecked. If the car had previous accidents on its
CARFAX car history report, you should be suspicious and have a mechanic verify that airbags are properly installed.
Run A CARFAX Vehicle History Report Before You Buy That Used Car
Think of a CARFAX Vehicle History Report
as a credit report for a car. You MUST run this report if you buy a used car so you don't get scammed. It happens to the best of cars too, Lexus and Mercedes.
Extended Warranty companies will not cover a salvaged car with a rebuilt title
Manufacturer's warranty is voided on a rebuilt or salvaged title
Banks will not finance a salvaged car with a rebuilt title
You would hate to buy a used car without a CARFAX report, spend
hundreds on your extended warranty, then when you need to file a claim, the warranty company finds out your used car was salvaged and voids the warranty.
VIN Numbers and where to find them
Many visitors tell me they ran a CARFAX
vehicle history report and found the used car they almost bought was a rebuilt wreck. One visitor told me his
CARFAX history report saved him $7500. You can find the VIN# on the
a plate on the dashboard by looking through the windshield. Some cars also have the 17 digit VIN# printed on stickers on the drivers side door, trunk, other doors.
Then you can run a CARFAX Vehicle History Report to see if it has a rebuilt title.
My friend showed me a CARFAX report on a used Lexus RX300 that had
been wrecked, another one showed me a CARFAX report on a Honda Odyssey
minivan showing it was sold at a salvage auction.
You need to do more than run Free CARFAX Record Checks!
Don't just run free CARFAX record checks and think your job is done.
That's just a teaser showing you how many records exist for that car, so run the full
CARFAX 30 Day Unlimited Vehicle History Reports option.
One in 10 cars in the CARFAX database has a costly hidden problem.
CARFAX also has an excellent buyback guarantee. If
for some reason a problem title is later found on a vehicle that shows a "Clean Title" in their system,
CARFAX will buy back the vehicle from you. The
CARFAX 30 Day Unlimited Vehicle History Reports option
gives you the chance to check the history of every used car you are shopping for.
Maximize your CARFAX history reports. Get the 30 day unlimited car title check
For maximum benefit, do what I did. Sign up now before you forget, to the
CARFAX 30 Day Unlimited Vehicle History Reports option
instead of just a single vehicle history report, as you'll want to check several cars before you buy. It gives you the chance to check the vehicle history of every
used car you are shopping for. You don't have a VIN number to check yet Yes you do, run the VIN number on your own car first. It's instantaneous, then run your
parents' car VIN Number to get a feel for reading the reports. Get the VIN Numbers off every car you look at and it's an all you can eat 30 day
CARFAX Vehicle History Report buffet. You'll look at 10 used cars
before you buy, and car ads on Autotrader, so run the VINs that are posted.
Use your vehicle history report to haggle a lower used car price
One nice feature of the CARFAX Report that several of our visitors
have made clever use of is the leasing and delivery history of the car. Some people get the car history report to determine when the dealer took delivery of the used
car coming off a lease. You'll might find the car was sitting on the lot 6 months. You can use this powerful ammunition to knock down the price of the car. If it's
been on their lot for 6 months, no one wants it, name your price. Many of our visitors have reported excellent success with this strategy.
Most people love that the CARFAX report shows the states a car was
registered in, and when it was bought. This is useful data, because a 2003 car could have been bought in 2002, so it's really older than the other 2003 models you are
looking at.
My friend's CARFAX report for
the used Lexus RX300 he just bought has a VIN decode showing the car was an 4 wheel drive. The dealer did not know it because you cannot tell from the
outside, and they only charged him for the standard 2WD, so he made out quite well.
If the car went through an auction, the CARFAX vehicle history
report will show it. This is a great way for you to catch insurance companies who skirt the law. They resell a totaled car through a salvage auction, evading your
state's minimum threshold of damage disclosure laws on the title. They are only required to brand the title if the damage exceeds a percentage of the value of the car.
If they can get enough for the car at an auction, they won't have to brand the title even though the car should be totaled. Then you lose out. In many states the
CARFAX Report lists the police case number for car accidents
it was in, and a description of the accident. That's a great way to trap a seller in lying about previous wrecks. Here's a great example:
My friend wanted to buy a used Lexus RX300 listed on Auto Trader's web site. He ran a
CARFAX Used Car History Report on the listed VIN# and found the car
was in a wreck. I scanned in a section of his report to show you a trend you might see on accident cars:
First they wreck the car, then it gets sold at an auction. The seller sure didn't advertise that in the ad!
Where can you get a VIN decoder?
Many people ask where they can get a VIN decoder. The VIN decoder is very expensive, and some car fan pages have a VIN decoder for a
VIN only on one particular car. But one good benefit of the CARFAX Vehicle
History Reports is their vin search includes a VIN decoder on the car including the model, options, year, engine size and type, drive train info, country of
manufacture, EPA gas mileage, etc. This gives you the car title facts that you'll need and that car's past history prior to making that car title transfer.
In California, you better run the CARFAX Gross Polluter Check!
CARFAX Vehicle History Reports is a great tool for your arsenal.
This is a must if you live on the west coast. It informs you if the a car has failed emissions in California, and if it eventually passed again. You should not
worry if the car eventually passed inspection, but if it is currently under a Gross Polluter violation and it has not been repaired, then you should avoid the car.
CA has probably the toughest emissions laws in the US. If a car has failed emissions, it could cost you, the poor unsuspecting consumer, hundreds of dollars or more
to get the car to pass the pollution test. That's a money trap you can do without.
Every VIN# Tells A Story
The 17 digit car VIN# (Vehicle Identification Number) is on all cars, usually found in the dashboard as a metal strip with numbers that you can't get at. In the 70's
and 80's car thieves would either alter the numbers, file them down, remove the tag altogether, or replace it with a VIN tag from another stolen car. You should also
be able to find the VIN# inside the driver side door on a factory sticker, sometimes the passenger door, your trunk may have a sticker, the hood usually has one, and
sometimes the engine and other major parts have one, or it's engraved. My Lexus SC300 has stickers on most of the major panels. My 1988 Trans AM GTA also had a sticker
inside the center console with other part markings on major vehicle parts to aid in theft recovery. The car makers usually place VIN stickers on the major accident
parts like doors, engines, and quarter panels. These are the parts that are also broken down from a car when it's stolen. If they show up in another car, you know
something is wrong. Either the car was stolen, a victim of grand theft auto, or previously junked and rebuilt. Walk around the car, checking all the doors and panels
for the VIN# and making sure that ALL of them match. If you find multiple VINs, run a
CARFAX VIN history on all of them.
Check all the doors and panels for the VIN#, making sure that ALL of them match. If even one of them is a mismatch, something is wrong. If the seller denied that the
car was in a wreck, it's time to leave, for you know they are lying now. Ask them why the VIN#'s don't match and watch them squirm. This is the best way to protect
yourself and it takes you a minute.
The DMV processes and approves 350 "rebuilt" or "laundered" titles every month.
On 7/18/99 The Miami Herald published a report called "Rebuilt Wrecks: Buying Trouble" by Larry Lebowitz. Detailing scams that several used car buyers
ran into, most of which have been listed here for years. The Miami Herald article backs up what we have been stating here on
verygoodppc.com when we started in 1997. If these poor people had only stopped by here
before they went to buy, they would have been much better off. The article reported that the DMV processes and approves 350 "rebuilt" or "laundered" titles every
month. That means chances are good that you can get a car that was wrecked or stolen, and had the title "branded" as totaled, but it was laundered back to "used
car" status by making a few minor repairs in a highly unsupervised and loosely regulated industry. Can you guarantee your safety in a wreck? How do you know if the
airbag still works, or the ABS? There is no safety data on rebuilt cars, and you should not risk the lives of your kids on a rebuilt car.
Evidence of a previous accident or rebuilt cars
Check the tires and windows carefully for evidence of paint over spray. Many sellers will put a cheap paint job on the car and lie about it being in a wreck. The
cheaper the paint job, the sloppier the body shop gets. They get over spray all over the place, and that's your singing telegram that the car was in a wreck or rebuilt,
most people don't just paint a car for the heck of it. Run the title search on the car and it will tell you if the title has been branded in any way.
The free CARFAX
Record Check is a way to get started, but it only tells you the number of records available on the vehicle in the CARFAX database. So be sure you do more than just
run the free CARFAX Record Check. This free check is not the complete
CARFAX Vehicle History Report.
When we checked the CARFAX database a
few years ago, Florida had over 700,000 problem vehicles, California had 548,000, New York had 709,000, and Texas had 1.7 million! Dateline NBC did a report using
CARFAX on Hurricane Andrew cars in Florida with junked titles being
laundered back to "used car" status in other states. Credit unions and dealers use
CARFAX vehicle history reports religiously, so should you and I. Enter
the VIN#, the CARFAX report appears online, with title and registration
data, certified odometer readings, liens & more.
How To Tell If A Car Has Been Flooded
We get tropical storms and Hurricanes in the southeast that flood thousands
of cars annually. Where do these cars end up? In your driveway as a used car. This is the biggest complaint of buying used cars. In 6/2001, tropical storm Allison
flooded thousands of cars in Houston. On 10/15/99 Hurricane Irene flooded hundreds of cars in South Florida, and in 9/99, Hurricane Floyd flooded an unbelievable 15,000
cars in the Carolinas. Many were totaled and have their titles branded by insurance companies as "Flooded". Here's some tell tale signs to check for flood damage.
Look for water lines on the engine. Imagine a car sitting in a few feet of water, where would the water lines be?
On the radiator, the engine, the wheel wells, inside the car, but they may have cleaned the engine. Examine it on a lift.
A VIN decoder should tell you if equipment is missing on the car.
New carpeting or upholstery. No one re-carpets their car for no reason. Lift the carpet and look for a mess underneath. They don't always do a good job cleaning.
Look for mold, or a damp musty smell. Check for rust by the door hinges, and look in the trunk under the mats. Check the spare tire and crow bar, make sure they are
not rusted.
Use a mirror to check under the seat. If the metal has been contact with moisture, the metal rusts quickly.
Check the air intake filter. Some people are such losers that they don't even bother to replace the soaked air filter, so you'll
see debris like grass, twigs, and papers on the filter or inside the air intake opening.
