I am an ignorant fool who decide to trust a CARFAX report in aiding my decision for buying my current car. Back in the winter of I was in the market for a compact car that had good gas mileage within city limits. When using auto trader, it came down to 2 cars; a Toyota Corolla and a Honda Civic. I purchased a carfax report for both of these cars.
Carfax had a correct report for the Toyota [which had one accident on it] and had an incorrect report [didn't know at the time] for the Honda Civic. The civic record was completely clean. After hiring a third party to perform a 150-pt inspection on the Honda Civic [which to my knowledge was a company also owned by CARFAX, INC] it came back immaculate and passed. Rest assured with these two things and after a test drive, everything seemed to point directly to the Civic. WRONG.
A few months after using the car, the seat belt would often get 'locked' and would take many attempts to finally get 'unlocked' and clicked in. Also, the AC wouldn't get cold. Knowing that safety is first, I remember that Honda provides a lifetime warranty on seat belts. BRILLIANT! I took it into my local dealership with the mindset that this was an easy repair and the AC might just need a freon recharge. WRONG AGAIN.
Unbeknown to me OR to CARFAX, this vehicle had been in an accident! Because of this accident, my seat belt replacement was NOT under warranty and costed over $200 to fix. The AC luckily just needed a freon charge but still wasn't cooling that well. I disregarded it and assumed that's the best it gets.
The following year, the AC was not cooling again. I figured, well, another freon charge is in order. Took it in, got it charged but the AC cooled worse than the previous year. I was beginning to get worried. It was nearing the end of summer so figured I'd deal with it next year.
Little to my surprise when I took it in the following year, the coil and clutch on the compressor needed to be replaced. A $900 REPAIR! It was a hefty bill, but I figured that was that and it should be good.
Fast forward now to this spring. AC not working AGAIN. Took it into the dealership and it needs ANOTHER new coil and air compressor. It appears the compressor took out the NEW coil installed. THIS WAS A $1,100 REPAIR! I am enraged at such a charge. I asked the mechanic how could this happen? The car is a 2002 BUT had the ONE accident that CARFAX didn't have. Since the accident was on the front end, the mechanic explained it was most likely the cause, dislodged it a bit and over the past couple years caused it to fail. So, because I trusted CARFAX and it's entities, I've been stuck with bills out the wazoo because of an accident not reported on the CARFAX report or by their "qualified" inspection agent.
I know if I receive a response from CARFAX, they will simply point out their terms where basically it says "Hey, if there is something not recorded on our reports and is found out later, sorry man. Good luck though. Oh by the way, you can't say anything about it to anyone because it might tarnish our image and legally you're screwed. Have good luck with your expensive paperweight!"
My advice? DO NOT HIRE CARFAX FOR ANYTHING. They have deemed to be unreliable and have caused me misery and countless bills to pay off. Hire someone locally or someone you KNOW to check for damage. CARFAX is incompetent at doing its job and throws out the "we're not liable for shit" card so you're screwed either way. They're just another company whose in it for the money. Do not trust them at all!
0 comments