The big mistake I made was not looking at the complaint BEFORE I paid these thieves my money, and looking at it AFTER the ripped me off.
I was looking for a used car that wasn't a lemon or by back vehicle, wasn't in major accidents over a thousand dollars, didn't want a salvage title vehicle nor one that was used as a submarine in flood waters, which is why I took advantage of the Carfax report. They claim their reports are accurate, true, up to date, and will give you a true history of the vehicle your looking at since sellers do make false statements to sell their vehicles. Especially the dealers.
So, when I was looking for a vehicle last month I saw an ad for a 2003 Cadillac Deville from a small dealer here in Phoenix which was under the market price. The dealer boasted about his Carfax report which was clean. So, I looked at the car, read quickly his Carfax report, and purchased the vehicle. A few days later, the electronic dashboard was displaying erractic images. Days later, the left window broke. Then I noticed a great amount of little items malfunctioning. I figured its a used car and I knew what I was doing and the Carfax report showed no accidents, no salvage title, no buy back, etc. End of that story.
However, I was now looking to purchase another used vehicle for my wife. I decided to buy the Carfax special for $34.99 for 30 days of unlimited reports. At that time I decided to look up Carfax on the complaint website and was stunned at the results. I learned that the car dealers and private sellers use Carfax as a huge selling tool because they can unload a junk car very easily because 80% OF THEIR REPORTS ARE INCOMPLETE AND USUALLY DO NOT LIST THE LEMON LAW VEHICLES, MAJOR ACCIDENTS, ETC.
So I began my 30 day subscription by asking for reports on my own vehicles which I knew its history and the accuracy of it. I was shocked!
I bought a 2005 Dodge SRT-10 Viper truck, brand new, and had nothing but trouble with it. It shook violently between 65 mph & 80 mph, then again at 120 mph. It blew over 7 computer boards and left me stranded numerous times. I hired a "lemon-law" attorney who quickly had the manufacturer buy this lemon back from me. When I brought it back to the dealer I was told it had to be disclosed, by law, that it was a lemon.
When I requested the report on that truck which was definately a lemon, Carfax reported it as " no problems, no accidents, no lemon law or dealer buybacks, " etc.
Then I requested a report on the 2003 Cadillac Deville I bought in the beginning of my story. Remember that car that lots of little things kept breaking down. Remember I was shown, quickly I might add, the dealers Carfax report which he was very proud of. When I received my own report from Carfax on my own car, I discovered, in small print, that my vehicle was a rental or fleet vehicle which now makes sense.
After investigating this myself, and speaking with some honest dealers who do not use Carfax, I was shocked to learn the truth behind these thieves who actually rob customers by providing inaccurate and/or incomplete history of their reports. The dealers and sellers who are less than honest know that chances are the Carfax report will be incomplete at best so they sell the customer by saying Carfax will "buy back" this vehicle if Carfax reports were wrong.in reality, in small print, they rarely, if ever, buy back a vehicle under the terms of their contract with we, the customers. Their disclaimer is if they don't receive a report from the service they subscribe to that the vehicle in question was a lemon, and they report it to you as a clean vehicle, they legally do not have to buy back that vehicle if their information is inaccurate.
From what I understand, Carfax subscribes to the cheapest incident reporting service which I am told is months behind and in no way up to date. So in essence, you could be buying a vehicle which was under water for a year, then rebuilt, resold to you, and Carfax won't pick up that information for maybe 1 year later. But the report YOU receive will show a clean and unmolested vehicle. When you DO learn that your vehicle was used by underwater diving groups, Carfax will NOT be obligated to buy back your vehicle because they will simply say they received a report as being clean so thats their only contractual obligation to you so they do not have to buy back that vehicle.
The unscrupulious car dealers and private sellers love Carfax because its a great asset to make believe we buyers are in good hands.
If you want to throw your money away, rely on Carfax!
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