obersturm

Hi all,

sorry for spamming your board with my questions, but what is this CARFAX thing all about?
I have seen a copy of the title and it didn't has salvage or anything noted on it.
What else does a CARFAX tell you and is it woth the money (how much ist it)?

Thanks and best regards from Down Under

Martin

UberXY

Carfax will sometimes tell you if the car has had a major accident or if the title has been washed. It's not altogether reliable or accurate - I would consider it a rough guide at best, although many guys reflexively consider a must do activity. Depending on what US state the car is in, sometimes I use publicdata.com to look up previous owners, and sometimes I call them directly.

Best of luck in your search,

Steve
84 911 Targa
64 356C

Jay H

Also, a Carfax may help provide some limited mileage history if the car had to have been taken to an emissions testing station over the years. Sometimes you can see how many miles per period were put on the car and if the current mileage matches the history.

However, emissions testing station employees have been known to make errors when recording mileage, showing odd gaps or mileage going backwards that may throw a red flag on the CarFax for nothing. As Steve says above, take this information with a grain of salt at times.

jakeflyer

I think it is about $25 or so. WELL worth the money and time. I think a car can go from a salvage title to standard title in at least one U.S. state. Carfax will show that even though you may see a standard title with the car. I have not bought a couple of cars because of carfax. A couple of them-----

1. Car was in a serious accident on a police report. But did not total the car. One car in Ca. one car in Va. The Va. seller said he was the 2nd owner, he was the 6th owner.

2. CAr in North Ca had TWO mile roll backs shown on carfax. Totaled about 80,000 miles.

There were a couple of others that were not so dramatic, but definitely showed a less than honest seller.

obersturm

Hi all,
seems to make sense than? My prospective car is in Hawaii but was sold in Dallas/Texas.

regards

Martin

holy911

Hawaii? Rust city capitol of the US!!!! I know because I used to live there. It's worse than east coast because of the salt air, humidity, bad roads, frequent rain, mud puddles. Cars take a beating over there! Most cars don't live more than 10 yrs w/o some rust..unless the whole car could be clear-coated.

All Hawaii cars must pass an annual safety check and rust is one of the specific items they look for. But only if parts are falling off the damn thing is it flagged. I've never seen so many rusted out cars driving around that should not have been on the roads.

I hope I'm not scaring you, but you'll definitely want a very thorough PPI for rust especially.

BTW, is this car a white cab 911?

obersturm

Hi there,

interesting. The car arrived in Hawaii 1999, so it spend 9 years in the harsh climate. It has been professionaly repainted in 2005 and there was no rust reported or fixed at that time.
It did 15000mls on the island as a perfect weather vehicle (alegedtly never driven in the rain) and was always garage kept.
Lets see what the PPI will reveal.....

I also ran an AutoCheck History report (is that compareable to a CarFax?):

9 Vehicle events checked:
No accident record reported through state agencies or independent sources
No corrected title record
No duplicate title record
Emission/safety inspection record(s)
Loan/Lien record(s)
No fire damage incident record
No repossessed record
No theft record
No storm area registration/title record


Best regards
Martin

GothingNC

The last inspection I just had with the Porsche, the shop input the mileage at 45,000 instead of 95,000.

John

holy911

Definitely a VERY thorough PPI for rust is a MUST! There is almost no way in HI to drive a car and not hit rain. The rain there isn't like most places where if it's raining in one area, it's raining widespread. In HI, it can be sunny on one side of the island, but as soon as you go over the hill, it's pouring rain. So unless the PO only drive within about a 20 mile radius, he HAD to hit rain. Remember, HI is an island and has several microclimates all over each side.

I remember parking my car and it's sunny, not a cloud in sight. 2 hrs later and pouring rain. It's just a fact of life over there. That's island life.

How would a dealer know if the car's been driven in rain anyhow? He wouldn't is the answer.

PPI that chassis good!!!

WPOZZZ

I live in Hawaii and haven't really run into the rust issues holy911 speaks of. Heck, my house is only a block away from the beach, too.

Steely

obersturm: I never heard of AutoCheck History, but judging from the items reported, I'd say it looks pretty comparable to Carfax.

holy911

dang. you've been lucky then. how long/many days in rain you drive the 911?

WPOZZZ

I use my BMW for that. The Porsches stay in the garage for the most part, unless it is a really nice day. I think lots of people here will do that with special cars.