Tweakophyte

Hi-

Been shopping... new and used. Some have Carfax, which is good to check for accidents. Does anyone have another way to interpret these?

I was thinking you could look at service frequency... too much or too little. Out of two cars I am looking at, one has only one service at 15.4k miles. The other has services at 5.5k, 6.1k, 9.9k, and 15k. Thoughts?

What is "standard" service frequency? How reliable is Carfax (or dealer input)?

Thanks,

EF99

It's inconclusive on what it doesn't list.

Might check the Autocheck report as well. They sometimes have more records/info.

Stereodude

The Carfax is only as good as what's reported to them. You can have a car that was in a serious accident and not have it on the Carfax especially if a claim was never placed with an insurance company.

FWIW, first oil change is 5k miles and 10k miles after that.

DrGP

Only really bad things.

Goony

Carfax is only as good as the dealers/body shops that provide information to it.

tofuking

I have to agree with the folks here, Carfax is useful for vehicle history but always inspect the car in great detail and take the carfax report with a grain of salt

One of my friends got into a pretty bad accident which resulted in his entire front end damaged, airbags deployed. He claimed through insurance and had the dealer fix his car. After all this, car looks brand new with but no record on carfax at all.

So...

mkato13

Carfax is as said above only as good as whats reported. If nothing is reported to insurance or the company then nothing gets posted. My friends car was in a few accidents and it came up clean on Carfax and I traded in a car that had was keyed on the entire drivers side of the car, put it through insurance and that came up as a hit on car fax. It can be helpful but if your in doubt bring the car to a reliable mechanic and pay the $100-200 to have them fully check it out. Just my $0.02

B8 S FOR

***CARFAX IS SH$T!*** Only whats reported to it...a joke personally...

tofuking

+1

johnz

Carfax=worthless. I had an S4 that was hit on the right side so hard the left side was bent. Fixed with insurance and sold to an Audi dealer. It went through 3 titles in 1 year when I checked it on carfax. Nothing there about the accident! So I reported it to carfax. I never trust them. as mentioned above, have a qualified person check a car you are thinking of purchasing