Last year my Z51 Stingray's bumper was scratched by another car backing out of a parking space. I had the damage repaired to the tune of $1400 to get it back to perfect. I decided to sell the car in Autotrader and added the CarFax to my ad. It showed moderate rear end damage to my car. Of course I was not happy. A short time later, I found another car that caught my eye at the local Audi dealership and traded the Stingray away. I looked later on the dealer site and there was my car listed with a CLEAN CarFax. It shows it was in for service at the dealer instead of the damage that it showed on my CarFax. Has anyone experienced this before? Can dealers get a modified CarFax?

 

That sounds pretty bad. Just to be sure, was it definitely a Carfax they were showing, or could it possibly be something like AutoCheck. They are often quite different.

 

Definitely a CarFax.

 

Photoshop job by the dealer?

 

What if you buy a fresh report on your old VIN? Is the CarFax clean now?

 

Can a dealer amend a CarFax?!

 

Car fax is not reliable at all. Several years ago I was interested in a 997, Carfax stated that right front wheel had been replaced. Upon inquiry the real story was that a PCNA rep had the car out for the weekend and hit a pot hole. This minor misshap took out the one wheel, tweaked rt front suspension, wrecked the front bumper, right radiator and damaged the air conditioning unit. Dealer spent $5000-$8000 (I don't recall the exact #) to fix it.

 

Dealers cannot change a Carfax. It's very difficult for anyone, even dealers to get Carfax to correct or change things on those reports even when mistakes have been made.

 

This is correct, it is very hard if not impossible to get a carfax changed. I was the SE data acquisition manager for several years. Carfax is meant as a starting point not the gospel. Always use a paint meter and if you have work done just document it and take pictures. In many cases now the Carfax links directly to the accident report which will include photos. It is by far from perfect but it beats what we used to have which is nothing. There are around 14 million previously totaled cars on the road today. Title washing and vin duplication happens thousands of times every month.

QUOTE=STG;14957879]Dealers cannot change a Carfax. It's very difficult for anyone, even dealers to get Carfax to correct or change things on those reports even when mistakes have been made.[/QUOTE]
crafax

 

Not necessarily true. I recently cleared on Autocheck entry for my buddy so he could sell his full Mansory Veyron for $2.0 mm. The Carfax was clean but buyer's agent ran an Autocheck which showed rear impact . . . a rear impact that never happened. My buddy had the car since new and I spoke to the guy that worked on it throughout the years as well. We finally found the problem after lots of research and chasing down a report with an incorrect number.

Someone had apparently parked their bicycle behind my buddy's Veyron. My buddy left and the little bicycle beotch's pants were apparently tight enough to impede oxygen flow to rational parts of their brain . . . He allegedly came out, found his bicycle on the ground, called the police and made a report. My buddy's tag is easy because it was custom. Cops made the police report, my buddy never knew about it and Autocheck picked up on it and reported it as a rear impact.

This "rear impact" was in the process of cancelling a $2.0 mm sale and would have reduced the value of this very special 1 of 1 in the US Mansory Veyron by about 20% or $400k as there was rumors circulating one of the 3 Mansory Veyrons in the world was wrecked and converted to full Mansory Veyron to conceal the prior wreck (rumor, not fact as no one would pay $1.2 mm Euro for a Mansory package for a wrecked Veyron) and we knew the other owners as well.

I contacted Autocheck and initially threatened suit, but when we found out what happened they took the little bicycle beotch's temper tantrum off the Autocheck report, the sale was consummated and the this very special car now has a properly clean history.

 

Doug, I know you have no way of knowing but as I used to work there I can assure you that Carfax and Autocheck are very different companies. I have no idea what the process is at Autocheck but they are a relatively small company in comparison so it would not be surprising if you could get something changed there more easily. Carfax will change something if you have proof one of their reports is wrong. Again, what I said is this is not easy. In the OP example of a car being wrecked and then the wreck disappearing it would be impossible minus some foul play. In the time that I worked there managing their data I did not meet anyone who would have been willing to compromise their data as that is their bread and butter.

 

Great lawyers have ways of getting things done. It took a bit of work and me threating lawsuit before we finally tracked down what happened. I went through both their corporate and their legal department channels. The rear impact incident occurred back in 2012 and the report number listed was incorrect. I had an associate and a law student clerk researching to find the correct report number and pull the actual report. They would have been liable to my client for at least $400k (20% diminution) had their been no report and millions in reputation damage as he is a broker in a very high end close nit community (including recent sale of a 250 GTO). In all, it took about 3 days and they and a 4 day deadline as I had a deadline with the buyer's agent to clear the Autocheck or they were going to walk.

I would be inclined to figure out an angle for a class case against Carfax given the right case/facts. I can get just about anything certified . . . and blow just about any class up . . 60% of my practice is representing large companies such as medical device and drug companies, airlines, truck companies, hotels chains in tort and wage and hour class actions. The other 40% is filing class actions against large companies I don't represent.