Will my repair go on CarFax?
 

I posted a while back that my wife had an unfortunate ‘come together’ with our garage stairs, anyway the damage was cosmetic but it deformed the bumper cover so the headlight gap was uneven.
I decided to get it repaired and put it through the insurance (Progressive), and they will be replacing the cover, lower cowl & grill cover.

I asked both the repairer and Progressive and neither said they report to CarFax, and that CF get state reported data here in MN.

Anyone had experience of a minor repair being reported?, I went over there today and took a load of shots of the car, bumper ect to explain should I need to in the future.

I also asked progressive if I can have the old bumper cover as it would make the perfect DE bumper!!, I guess they will decline and a good bumper will be scrapped.

Does it really matter? A good honest seller will disclose this mishap to the next potential buyer regardless, and you have the pictures (smart move) to support your disclosure that it was cosmetic only.

It depends on what state and insurance company, IMO. You can always call and ask your insurance company.

Just run a car fax yourself in a couple of months and you'll know for sure rather relying on what someone might think might happen

I just sued the guy I bought my car from who handed me a car fax and said it had never been wrecked. I personally would have appreciated the honesty - If it really was a small deal, why not tell me? Anyway - I thought that if insurance pays - it will go on the car fax - and if you pay for the repairs - it won't - just what I have been told.

I won my case by the way and got my money for him not disclosing the repair

I will be up front with whoever buys when I come to sell, I was just wondering as for some it will put them off even looking, or will devalue the car.

Life happens - and if I were your buyer, and you could tell me about life of the car then that would tell me you took good care of it. In the instance of my car, it was 10 years old, a fender bender wasn't out of the question, but not being upfront makes me think that's there is much more I don't know. I think you should mention it or say it has never been in a collision - which is more serious. Anyway, I would be happy to hear all you had to say about the car, what you liked what you didn't - I guess because to me they are different than "normal cars", But that's just me :)

Was this an individual or dealer? I could have sworn that "As Is" is just that then you proceed to have a PPI. However if the car was totaled and the guy repaired it and sold it as if it were never deemed totaled then certainly that is fraud.

Did he sign something stating it has never been in an accident or collision? Your case sounds interesting. I mean if I don't have a PPI done and something goes wrong I can just sue to get the money back after I do a post purchase inspection.

I had a 2000 car that was in 3 wrecks. None showed up on car fax. All three went through my insurance and the dealership for repair.

You can if you can prove they knew about the problem(s) all along and were knowingly contracting outside of good faith.

Having recently had an accident I took a ton of pictures and started a file with all repair info to disclose if and when I sell my car, better to do the right thing.

Depending on CarFax to determine a cars condition/history is pretty much a crapshoot.

I have found about the only thing of use in Carfax is the number of pevious owners and locations (weather related info).

I've seen it go both ways. Coincidentally, I just had an air conditioning truck sheer off one of my rear bumperettes and scratched up the bumper cover. Called for a police report on the spot but didn't have them call it in. They have the write-up if it becomes necessary. I asked that the a/c company repair the damage outside of insurance. They agreed until I got some preliminary estimates. Bottom line, about $1100 if the aluminum brace isn't bent - about $2000 if it is.
I asked the insurance agent if they could please not report it to Car Fax. Don't know if he has that ability. I don't think it's that big a deal because I agree that disclosure is the correct way to live. I'm in the car business and look at 10-20 Car-Faxes a week. They are not the complete story. I've seen cars that were obviously creamed pull clean Car Faxes. I've seen cars with no damage except maybe a painted bumper with dirty Car Faxes. To the OP, take pictures, keep records. They will reveal the truth about your car's condition w or w/o a Car Fax report.

It's hard to say whether or not a repair is going to show up. I have even seen reporting from a Jiffy Lube. My experience with CarFax reports that other than the individual entries, they are pretty much useless. They routinely get the number of owners wrong and often do not report obvious accident damage.

Perhaps the worst thing CarFax does is when they try to put a dollar value above or below average on a car. I've seen cars with accident history that show value above average and one owner, low-mileage cars with clean history reported as being worth less than average.