CarFax (CF) is a report that every used car buyer MUST acquire and understand. CarFax is either provided free, by the seller, or you, the buyer, must pay for the study. The average CF report is 25 pages in length - don’t panic there is a review page or two that sums the rest of the report. The report has 6 sections:

Vehicle History Report. This is the first page of the CarFax and the most important! This page instantly sums the total CarFax if 1) service records available, 2) number of previous owners, 3) if the car was leased or corporate vehicle, 4) any accidents, 5) detail event records 6) last odometer reading. One glimpse, at the CarFax, tells you if this used car is a turkey and not to expend another second of your time or if this car is worthy of more research.

A summary of 1) ownership history, 2) title troubles, and 3) other data follow. It takes but 10 seconds to scan these sections and look for red flags - things that CarFax has determined you need to investigate. And that’s the secret of CF - only the items CarFax has judged to be a problem need to be researched; this saves lots of time and allows you to quickly toss cars with problems.

Accidents, state inspections, all events, change in ownership, etc. are shown in the Details section, below the Vehicle History Report.. Each owner of the automobile has a segment with all the details CarFax has accumulated.

Vehicle Highlights. Vehicle Highlights has many sections. Ownership History segment recaps the number of previous owners and latest mileage. State DMV-Reported Title Problems is an enormous critical section. Check if the car’s title has been reclassified into: Junk, Salvage, Rebuilt, Fire/Flood, Hail Damage, or Buyback/Lemon titles. If this has happened, ignore this used car.

Warranty Check. This is a very clever segment that shows various types of warranty coverage and if there is some warranty left. Reject or affirm any seller’s claim about warranties in this part. Some of the types of warranty coverage tracked by CF are: Basic coverage, coverage of the Drive Train, Emissions coverage, Corrosion coverage, and if any of the warranties are transferrable.

Safety & Reliability Ratings. This is a wonderful section where crash tests are made available from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Just how safe this used car is to drive is reported by front, side, and rear crash results.. Collision, Theft Indicator, and Injury section scores this used car against all cars and gives you guidelines as to this car’s ranking - below average, average, or better than average. Manufacturer recalls and if they were done to the car are covered in the Safety Recall segment. The last segment has a wealth of information - the J.D. Power Rating of this car type.

Buyback Guarantee Certificate (Optional). If the used car qualifies, CarFax will buyback the car if they screwed up with damage warnings, odometer readings, titles, or a Lemon History reporting. Some cars flunk and this should be your test too - if CarFax won’t issue a Buyback Guarantee then you should NOT buy that used car.

Consumer Ratings & Comments. Feedback from other car owners of this same model, make, and year of car are in this final segment. Trust me, if there is a problem with this kind of car other owners will post their horror stories. Once you use CarFax you will advise folks of any troubles you have with this make of car.

Tags: Auto

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