Before I give them my money, how good is carfax.com? Is the information good or is it just better to have a mechanic check out a used vehicle before purchase?

you would be better of having someone knowledge check the vehicle out if you are serious, car fax and others get their info from public databases and not everything makes it into the databases. if a local shop has repaired anything, it usually will not get reported. also, get a VIN check on this site if it is a GM vehicle for any dealer work done.

Rockin, Carfax is a great tool how ever not ever story is told or recorded there. I think for $25 bucks for unlimited searches it well worth it. You need to do your homework aswell, I would start with taking it to a good body shop to check for frame repairs, bad allignment of body parts, repainted or bleand spots. Also pull up the plastic door sills and check under the cartpet for signs of flood dammage. You can also post the VIN here in the ask the techs form and get the vehicles dealer warranty repair history. Good luck.

Carfax might narrow the field a little as to witch trucks you even want to look at. If you like the truck then take it to a local shop for a look. Even at $25, it’s kind of a waste of money unless you’re really picky on what you get and are going to be looking at many trucks IMO.

Carfax mainly goes by what is reported by insurance. if carfax doesnt report major damage then i would say the vehicle hasnt had any major damage (most people wont pay out of their pocket for huge damages but may for minor body damage)

Right, Carfax only tells what is reported by insurance. It's not gonna tell ya if the trans has been replaced by "Joe's transmission shop" and whatnot. And if the vehicle was a lease and someone had "modifications" done to the Odometer, it won't tell ya unless they were caught.

I paid the $25 to check out the hundai my wife wants. I will definitely take it to a shop for review. ...just have to select one to use... Any one in boise know a good shop for this work?

I ran our 16 year old's car that I know has had two+ owners, sold at auction, replaced engine, wrecked a week ago. It had an acurate mileage but listed one owner, no engine replace, no wreck.

Some dealers will run a Carfax report for you if you ask.. Most subscribe to the service so do one or a thousand, same cost to them.

Take it to Maz-Tech in Garden City. Ask for Mike Marston. 385.0339 Great People and honest. Tell them Minegar sent ya.

Don't waste your money...unless you suspect that it was fished out of a lake, or rebuilt from salvage. As stated above, the only thing you will find out is State police records & insurance records. Ask for a GM tech to do a vin check on this sight. All warrantee issues will be disclosed until the warrantee has run out, then the paper trail stops

Another good example of what everyone is saying: When I bought my '98' 1500 a couple of days later went to carfax. It had three entries for my VIN#. Called the dealer, wanted to know what they were. They downloaded and faxed it to me. First entry; Mr. Gonzales bought said truck. Second entry; Mr. Gonzales traded in said truck. Third entry; I bought said truck as second owner. What didn't it report you ask? The fact Mr. Gonzales had the third door operated on four times trying to get a rattle out of it from the factory. The dealer handled that in-shop. No need to report it.For me, don't waste your money. You won't find out anything they don't want you to know.

Buying from a dealer, get a service record report, that's worth something. Car fax is a false sense of security purchased for $25. Never hear anything come out of one of those reports that are bad that wouldn't be obvious otherwise.

Absolute conclusion is it is a waste of money. I haven't found a single piece of useful information but have certainly found a lot of missing information. Hope that saves someone else a couple $ on something useless.

If I wreck my car and the damage isn't bad enough for the insurance company to total it, and it gets repaired and I keep it, does that show up on Carfax? I thought that only if the insurance co gives it a salvage title and someone buys it and repairs it does it show up as being damaged.

once saw an excursion with obvious frame damage(big time offroad wreck) crapfax said it was all clear! best yet it was a canadian imported to california! They cover US and canada.

They're not worth a sh!t. That rag of a F@rd I sold back under the lemon law, shows absolutely nothing with Car Fax.

A good suggestion, have somebody(police, sherrif, etc) run the vin, find the previous owner and ask them about the car. Many times you can check the owners manual and get their names/address.
Doug