Background:
I am trying to sell my wifes Lumina, anyway, I decided to get my one month CARFAX subscription just to be safe, and so I paid the $24 and got a months subscription.

Along the way I decided to check all of my cars, just to make sure (not like I could do anything about it anyway at this point).

My pont:
I happened to snag a good TPI ECM from a junkyard camaro which had been stripped of its motor, and had been in a fire. the car was pretty well gone... When I got the ECM I wrote down the VIN, just so I would have it, I think I had to have it for the propriator of the junkyard anyway, but I wrote it on my salvaged ECM.

OK, this was back in 1999, or 2000 at the latest, matter of fact the salvage yard is NO longer in existance... I ran the VIN on CARFAX, to see what would happen to a KNOWN salvaged car.

It came back Clean as a whistle, not even a hickup.

1G1FP87F9GL177419 was the VIN.

This was the best place I could figure to post this since I have seen where several people want to have carfax done for them.

John

 

Yeah carfax is a joke.2 of my cars have been in accidents and they still come back clean.As a matter of fact one has been totaled TWICE,with no record.Do waste the money.

 

I have both of you beat I own a car that carfax is telling me does not exist.

 

My mom totalled 4 cars, 3 were listed as fine, the 4th was non existant. The moral of the story, Carfax = Joke.

 

yeah someone on the boards gave me a free run on it, and my car was fine but had like 9 reports all delt with buying/title changing/ loans on it.

you can hide accidents all hte time, just dont go through insurance.

 

Insurance has nothing to do with it, my wifes Lumina had a couple of damaged door bumper guards that I had done by Insurance and they did not show up either...

the ONLY car that came back with a Bad report was my old 95 Formula Convertable, I bought it with a salvage title. It now has a rebuilt title.

JOhn

 

I almost didn't buy my IROC because it had 11 hits on it. It turns out that it was just emissions tests. I hit 2 deer at once in my Caravan to the tune of 5k and that didn't show up at all.

 

same deal here. i just got it today. ran a camaro i had that was totaled. its $5000 guranteed. my moms car that i know was wrecked to $6500 in damage and its clean as can be

 

IF there is no DMV record of the accident, carfax won't know about it. I.e, you total your car, send it to the junkyard - who the hell do you think is gonna let carfax know?

-- Joe

 

Exactly my thoughts. To me carfax is a waste though. So what if a car was wrecked with 6500 dollars of damage. If it was fixed correctly it's worth more than the same car that had poor maintenance. Totalled car will show up if it's licensed again. But to me that doesn't mean much. Some insurance adjuster decided it was a total loss. My wifes 95 cutlass is a salvage title car. Bought it 4 years ago, 50000 miles later we have done nothing to it. Buying a used car is a risk. CARFAX makes money giving people the idea that the risk is lower.

 

I bought a car from a junkyard, and it came back cleen too... go fig... The title is still clear, but live & learn..

John

 

Oh, drat, I ran CARFAX...

I did it to see if my GTA was clean - I of course understod that if nothing got reported to certain agencies, it would, oc course, not show up. Hey, I didn't report the nasty hood-smashing incident I had with a Jeep Cherokee... That car will NEVER pass Hawai'i saftey laws, hence why I'm trashing the car to a yard come December. But I'm positive that the title is still clean - I never reported it, neither did the poor lady I hit (and she thought it was HER fault...) My buddy is looking to get a third gen, I told him to run the check... guess I should've read this here thread beforehand.

 

check this out ipurchased my lil blazer about 2 1/2 years ago it has been refistered to me since,when i got it it 1 report on carfax nothing has happened at all i just did another report and now it has a total of 4 reports(huhh!!!!)i have not had any incidents with this s10 at all...i like the perfect report of the burned camaro,carfax is for the trusting nerd folk(imo)......

 

gen3z:

The 3 reports since you got the vehicle is probably for title, registration, emission testing, etc.

 

good point,i thought it was only for accidents,dealership work etc.

 

My car has a salvage title, guy told me it was becuase the car was stolen and paid off by th einsurance company before it was recovered. I run the CarFax report car comes up clean. I was going to attempt to collect on there $5k reassurance when I read the small print it states that a stolen vehicle will not show up. Over the last couple years I have been in around and under that car, I have found some body panels slightly off, left front fender to hood spacing is larger on one side, looks like the front clip right there by where the hood latch is is shimmed, my back hatch is off almost 1/2" to long. All body panel #s match though. So now I am not sure what happened to this car and carfax was no help. If it was wrecked and repaired they did a pretty good job. Anyone know how to get rid of a salvage title in Cali?

 

Guys if you could run a carfax on my whip .. 1G1FP87S5GN146024 ... Thanks

 

yea do mine too if you can 1G1FP2182HN145330

 

I have been running carfax for those who ask, and it seems like about half of the time the data does not start until well into the 90's, in the last case it started in 2000...

Is that Gargamel?

John

 

I'm curious as to how one totals a car twice? Usually when its totalled thats it... party is over.. off to the junk yard... or did someone just massively rear-end the thing while it was being towed away

 

I think to the Insurance company a "total" is where money was paid out for the car because the total damage was more than the value of the car.

What I find interesting is when I had my Salvage title 95 Formula Convertable, I paid the same amount for insurance as if the car was clean. I believe the amount we pay for insurance is based on a formula of:
1) typical repairs cost
2) the overall value of the car,
3) the type of car
4) age & sex of driver
5) other misc items

It may have been if I would have totaled my 95 Formula the insurance company would have had to pay the full value of the car. Salvaged or not.

With that in mind, or even if the car was totaled out at a lower value than a standard car the insurance company would have issued a payout.

Im not really positive on this, because I did not total it a second time, but from talking to my insurance rep, I believe I would have had a payout as if the car was not totaled. My rep is a friend of the family too...

John