WRONG; SEE MY POST BELOW;; obviously you have not been in the market for used European luxury vehicles; once they hit 100K miles, the owners dump them on the cheap; if you don’t believe me;
go to Kelly blue book: look at the used prices;
my 2005 Mercedes c2404matic has a wholesale price of $353 because of the high mileage; that’s what a dealer would give me for it;
in the USA, no one wants old luxury European cars bec of the extreme headache and repair costs; that’s why I get them for next to nothing, fix them and drive them until they hit 300K; then even I dump them
shadowfax: you may be right about the used engine cost; it all depends on the make and model;
a Subaru is something that few people have engines in stock for I would think;
my Mercedes c240 4matic has an engine that has been around forever and is also in non-mercedes’ vehicles that were under the Mercedes overall ownership when Mercedes bought out Chrysler/dodge; same with the 722.6 tranny on it;
that said, I can go online and find 4 or 5 engines out there for under $900; plus shipping; installation is generally about a couple hundred bucks if I do it myself; or $3000 if I have an independent do the install;
I would never take anything to the dealer to do anything other than diagnostics or reprogramming issues; or, a problem that no one out there can figure out how to fix;
in my humble opinion,
No it’s not. There’s no national database that Carfax pulls information from nor is there a requirement to log all of completed work onto Carfax. For example, the 2005 Honda Odyssey minivan we purchased earlier this year. The “complimentary” Carfax had no record of any maintenance done other than some random state inspections and a few oil changes. It can provide useful information, but it’s far from being a “good way to insure your used vehicle has been properly cared for”
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Carfax does not provide insurance.
In fact, they can’t even ENSURE that a vehicle will be reliable.
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Because they’re a reliability nightmare and no one wants to spend a lot of money to acquire a wallet-buster. If you’re a mechanic (which, honestly, I’m having a hard time believing given that you think Carfax is some kind of guarantee that a used car has been maintained properly) then you can fix them for the cost of parts, but most people don’t have the knowhow or the tools.
And by the way…
So we’re at $3900 by your own reckoning, which is more than $3,000…
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You could have purchased a different vehicle, one with a service history. Some vehicle have very little service history but that doesn’t make the data source a bad service.
Subaru engines are as thick as fleas on a mongrel dog and Carfax is a rock solid reliable indicator of whether a car is good or not?
Carfax often has errors or missing info. It’s been a long time since I posted this but some years ago I checked several of my cars on Carfax.
My SAAB at the time (which was purchased from an AIr Force officer who bought it new) was shown by Carfax to be “currently stolen”. This came as news to me because when I looked out the door there it was in the driveway. And the DMV the next day said there was no record of that car ever being stolen.
A Subaru of mine with a 7 year old Salvage Title was shown by CF to have a clean title. Not.
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If you really believe everything you are saying, I have a bridge I can sell you across the East rive that will generate so much toll revenue you can buy NEW European luxury cars instead of old clunkers.
I can show you a picture of it on Craig’s list yo you can know it is real. Just send the first $6000 a month payment to my Bitcoin account and I will send you the deed.
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I didn’t say it was a bad source, My exact quote is:
(emphasis mine). I didn’t say it was a bad source, however I disagree with the post saying that “it’s a good way to insure your used vehicle has been properly cared for”. Conversely, we’ve also had posters on here before that have found erroneous information on their Carfax reports on cars they have owned since new. (see @ok4450’s post)
And yes, I could have chosen another van, however our mechanic gave us a clean bill of health after inspection and I decided to take the chance on it, and it’s been a very reliable van other than the turn signal bulb socket (I’ll finish that post later this week when I get a chance).
This is how CarFax works.
CarFax has a very large database of vehicles repairs and accidents. Although no where nearly as large as they make it out to be, or should be to be really useful.
They get this data from a few sources.
- Car dealers (new and used). Any new or used dealer can buy into the CarFax service. But to do so they are obligated to supply CarFax with their own data on repairs and accidents. I’m not sure what the percentage is today, but less then 5 years ago the number of dealers who participate was well less then 10%. The number of dealers participating is growing, but I’m pretty sure the number is very low.
This also doesn’t account for the number of small independent shops that probably account for a large percentage of all auto mechanical repairs and body repairs.
- Insurance companies. Insurance companies sell your data. But this depends on what state you live in. Some states have laws against this.
In conclusion - CarFax doesn’t have all the mechanical and body repairs on a vast majority of vehicles on the road today.
So it’s not so much what is on a CarFax report, but what ISN’T on a CarFax report.
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Carfax is useful when it finds something, which is why it’s not a bad idea to check. If the car has past damage and that damage was reported, and it’s in one of the databases Carfax checks, then you’ll know something you might not otherwise have known.
But if it doesn’t find anything, all that tells you is that the car exists on a continuum somewhere between “perfect” and “run away fast,” and you have no idea where that is.
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Yes, Carfax is useful in eliminating cars from your buying list, but not so useful in selecting one to buy.
For that, you need maintenance records, a careful examination by a qualified person and above all, if something doesn’t feel right, smell right or sound right don’t even spend money to get it looked at.
Don’t concentrate on getting a “deal”, concentrate on getting a good car. The two best used cars I bought were not bargain priced. The seller usually knows what they have.
Used car lots don’t generally have the best cars. New car dealers keep the best trade ins to sell themselves and the rest go to dealers auctions where the used car dealers buy them.
The used car dealers fix them enough to be salable, but you will get a pad slam with cheap pads, rather than a good brake job, cheap tires etc.
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Actually, I have found it works both ways. When I see something concerning that is on the CarFax, I eliminate that prospect, Alternatively, when I see regular oil changes and other maintenance listed at the right intervals, I add that vehicle to the best prospects list. The last one I bought was clearly a company car based on titling and registration information and had all the recommended services performed at the right intervals. I ended up buying it over a few other prospects but the CarFAX certainly helped to place it at the top of the preferred list. Followed by my personal inspection of course 
AS stated…if there is something on the report then use it in your purchase decision.
The problem is what ISN’T on the report. That’s how CarFax tricks people into thinking their info is great. Oh Look CarFax found all this information on this car which prevented me from making a bad decision in buying it. The problem is when someone buys a vehicle because CarFax DIDN’T have anything on the report.
Mike, I’m specifically replying to the referenced comment in my post.