Little Green

So I met with the carfax folks as we use them at work and they were telling me about their app which helps folks take care of their cars with reminders on maintenance etc. You just use your license plate and state or your vin. It pulls your service records on your vehicle. It's free.

The reason that I just downloaded it is as a heavy duty DIY person when I go trade in my car there is nothing that shows up on carfax for things like oil changes, brake pads, filters, plugs etc as I have done them. On the app you can actually put in DIY and the miles/project/date completed as well as notes that will show up on your carfax should you go trade your car in.

With lots of people using carfax to determine wether they will buy a car having an incomplete service history may stop someone from looking at your car or getting a lower trade in value for it. At least having some sort of "record" on carfax makes it look more legit than some receipts and pics you took on your cell phone.

You can also have up to 5 cars on there so for those of us with multiple cars that we DIY this makes it that much easier to manage when stuff got done.

Just thought I would share for those heavier DIY guys on here.

Q 997.2 C4S

Thanks for the info. I downloaded this app and pulled up records for both my 997 & my VW. My VW I've had since new in 2010, & taken it to the VW dealer for 10k, 20k, 30k, & 40k service, but none of these service records show up. Any idea why? The safety inspections show up, along with an alignment at a local tire shop. But that's all. My CPO inspection/40K service on my 997 also doesn't appear.

Little Green

I spoke to the carfax guys at length about missing services and the issue is not all shops report to carfax which is why some will show(my dealer uses them) and others will not. Some of the larger service chains do and it's a nightly upload. I put in my plate last night and realized my registration had expired.

Quadcammer

Well shucks, whats to stop me from saying all the service was done when I didn't do anything.

I think opening this up for owners to put their own information on the carfax renders it basically useless.

raviis

I couldn't see all the service done to my car as part of the CPO. The dealer gave me a print out of all things done, but interesting to not see a single entry with Carfax.

SamDaMan

Feels very hit or miss. No Jiffy Lube records for my son's car, no local dealer service records for the truck. And I agree with Quad...if anyone can enter service data the utility of this (as a buyer) goes away.

This feels like a way for CF to start pushing service and service shops via advertising.

Little Green

There is really nothing to stop you from entering whatever you want to enter on to carfax. I have a feeling that enthusiast will enter their info in correctly while the average joe won't do anything.

SpeedyD

I'm also guessing it shows up different if a dealer enters it vs. an individual, so you can't impersonate / falsify the dealer information.

My carfax history was very detailed for the car, with every service performed by the same dealer, etc. Since changing to a different dealer, I see the same service updated on Carfax, so I am guessing most large Porsche dealers are pretty diligent about this...

Quadcammer

Ok, but lets say i'm an unscrupulous (or just dubious) dealer and in comes a car with no records.

Well, they say, I can enter some bogus fabricated info into the carfax to make it look like the vehicle has been meticulously serviced.

Carfax is meant as a way to legitimize a vehicle's background. If anyone with the license plate or VIN can add info to this thing with no checks and balances, how can you trust it.

If you DIY, you need to keep records and receipts...its not foolproof, but at least you have some evidentiary support for your claims that service was performed.

SpeedyD

I don't believe a dealer can add "backdated" service work records, even if they wanted to, as that isn't how Carfax records the data. If the dealer wanted to, they need to provide evidence to Carfax to justify the records change.

In other words, Carfax will record the information as per that date of entry, you can't override and just say things were done in the past.

That's my basic understanding of how it works. Clearly it would make sense to run it that way and not to allow backdating ***** nilly. I agree Carfax has problems and issues, but it is clearly in their business interest to maintain a certain level of validity in their data that is captured.

As for just entering false information as the dealer is working on cars... that would be fraudulent and nothing stopping that same behavior in written reports. There is nothing more inherently accurate about one vs. the other, and paper forgery is possible too...

Little Green

I can tell you as someone in charge of service at a company with over 800 locations that we cannot "backdate" records. We download all service records to carfax nightly. It is automatic and certainly nothing can be done at one of our stores to change what it looks like when it's sent over
You should see the amount of paperwork required to correct an odometer reading if entered incorrectly. It's no joke. Multiple signatures from folks here at our corporate office before it goes to carfax.

The system isn't perfect but I thought I would share that at least for some folks this could be beneficial from a DIY record keeping perspective.

SpeedyD

This is exactly what I suspected, thanks for confirming.

doclouie

wolfsburgde

Bumping an old thread, I use the app and have entered all three of my DIY oil changes but I found this:

https://support.carfax.com/article/c...rfax-car-care/

JB911

I think the app spies on us-just did my oil change, took a picture of my odometer to input the mileage on the app, and it already had the exact mileage displayed as I entered my personal notes-too much coincidence, it was the exact mileage. Maybe spying through bluetooth since the phone is with me as I drive-