Carfax randomly added an accident to my report (input welcome)

Zerafian

Ill try to keep this short. Im posting about it to see if anyone else has ever experienced this. Ive done some reading about this happening to others on reddit, so its not like Im the first, but Im a bit confused right now.

I bought my Z the first week of February, 2018. Ive owned it for a little over 4 years and decided to sell it recently. A friend of mine works at a dealership and ran the carfax report for me. He comes back and shows there was a "moderate" damage report on my car.

When I bought the car, the carfax was clean, with no accidents. When I looked closer at the new report, the accident apparently happened in October 2015 with front and rear damage and air bag deployment. Carfax recorded it on Feb 22, 2018, over 3 years after the accident actually happened....and about 15 days after I actually bought the car.

Ive taken my car apart quite a lot during my ownership and never noticed any signs of an accident bad enough to cause an airbag deployment. Along with that, the body shop Ive taken it to never recognized any fitment issues when installing parts. Everything behind the bumpers looks the exact same on both sides, no scratches or wear. The suspension has the same exact aging on both the left and the right (9 year old car at this point). Literally zero signs that this car has ever been in an accident to cause an airbag deployment.

I ran the report on a couple other sites but Im not sure it even matters since carfax is the go to for everyone. I dont think Ill ever be able to trust a carfax report, ever again. Both scenarios: A. Its incorrectly placing an accident on my car or B. It took over 3 years for carfax to register the accident. The fact it came up 2 weeks after I bought it is also suspect, crazy timing for sure.

If any of you all have thoughts about this, feel free to drop them below. Im pissed since I cant actually put the blame on anyone besides the carfax....a damn website thats suppose to be reliable and actually helpful for people.

Ive also sent in an inquiry to carfax saying their was an error in their report. Ill keep the thread updated when I hear back!

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tvfreakazoid

I'm curious about this as well

I'll be in my bunk!

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Cyber370

Unfortunately this is nothing new and it happens all the time. I’ve heard that accidents can go unreported for years and just show up on the report one day. Personally, I have experienced an erroneous service report show up on my wife’s Mazda performed by a Subaru dealer…..LOL. It never happened since we bought the car brand new. So yeah, Carfax is extremely unreliable.

This is why I never trusted Carfax when buying a car. I would consult it just the same but would also perform a complete PPI just to make sure there were no accidents.

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SLOPOS

I traded in a Veloster to buy my Z and Carfax shows it as a one owner car even though you can see two purchases in the history. In another event, I had a hit and run in a parking lot and called the sheriff to make a report for insurance. Didn't even end up running it through insurance but it showed up as a crash on the report. They're a joke, but everybody uses them.

When I bought my Z I depended on the Carfax to know what states the car was owned in to avoid rustbelt cars. It was nice to see every oil changed and when they were done/mileage, and those things I trust since they're entered into the record by the shops, but it seems like I might have passed over a few cars that showed damage that may not have had any.

Zingston

. It was nice to see every oil changed and when they were done/mileage, and those things I trust since they're entered into the record by the shops, but it seems like I might have passed over a few cars that showed damage that may not have had any.[/QUOTE]



Well if I ever sell my Z, Carfax will show the last oil change in 2016 (or anything for that matter).

I do all of my own maintenance.

cv129

Do the other sites show any accident?

My only thought would be to track down the reporting source of this incident, then acquire as much detail as you can. It can be from a police report, or a shop. Carfax is basically a data gathering service, so it'll report what it receives.

From what I've read, I don't think there's any recourse in the court of law.

This guy was able to talk to a higher up @ Carfax.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.c...&ct=clnk&gl=us

This one...I hope this is what you are experiencing.

“We went to trade in my wife's Lexus IS250 and the dealer tells us that the Carfax report shows that our car had been a in a severe accident, therefore the value of the car is much less,” Mario wrote in a ConsumerAffairs post. “The report did not have a date, just stated that the accident occurred in 2010 and was not reported. Our car has never been in an accident. I contacted Carfax and their answer was that the information came from a police crash report and provided a case number. Well, I checked the crash report number and it doesn't exist!”

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news...-it-wrong.html

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Rusty

Well if I ever sell my Z, Carfax will show the last oil change in 2016 (or anything for that matter).

I do all of my own maintenance.[/QUOTE]
Carfax will show zero maintenance for all my vehicles.

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redondoaveb

I'll never sell my Z

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DrBacon

I'm sure mine shows an accident, even though it was essentially only a small dent in the quarter panel from a dumb **** on a motorcycle the car still had to be put on a frame puller to be fixed, little over 5k in damage.

Zerafian

Once I hear back from carfax, Ill actually be contacting the dealership the car came from, in Colorado. See if I can actually get the information I need.

Im fairly certain I have little to no options but selling privately and telling the potential buyers what the deal is.

None of the other sites recorded an accident and the original carfax doesnt so Im going to go with those honestly.

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Zerafian

Carfax will show zero maintenance for all my vehicles.[/QUOTE]

I think it shows 2 oil changes during my ownership...yeah, not always a good way to gauge the maintenance done, hah.

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Zerafian

From what I read, it seems that an airbag can deploy around 10 mph. I suppose if I go off of that, theres a chance that only superficial damage was done and nothing else. Hence why theres clearly no visual evidence the car was damage. Meaning not even evidence of frame or bash bar repair. Funny thing is, the front and rear bumpers always looked 100% paint matched too. HArd to believe a repair body shop, even with black paint, would match the pearl correctly and the amount of orange peel.

Only know that because I did a restore on the clear coat so I knew how paint looked all around.

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SeeThruHead

i was reading a reddit thread about this. Apparently a shop put the car on the frame bender not to actually do frame repairs. But carfax considers any "frame time" to mean that extensive damage and repairs were done. Even if there was no structural damage. IIRC the guy go the shop to tell carfax that and they removed it.

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Zerafian

small update but nothing really in my favor, yet.

First off, carfax is literally impossible to get a phone call from, they avoid it like the plague and only do emails. I guess that makes sense because it keeps records of all interactions. It just takes forever to get questions answered.

Anywho, carfax "said" they contacted the police department about the accident report. They said they could not get information since they would need personal info. They could only get a confirmation from the police department. The odd thing is, I called the police department the report was done through and there was no way to actually get ahold of someone about records, you could only fill out an online form. I found it odd since carfax told me they spoke to someone about the report. Maybe I should assume they would have the ability to get in contact with someone, Im not even sure? I responded to that email saying that they could get the information on the accident by filling out a form on the department website and that I could speak to anyone, it was all recordings. I also asked how they were able to get ahold of someone because the department line didnt get that option. Im still very suspicious about how vague and dismissive the carfax rep is being.

I also went to carmax, where I got the car from in 2018. Tomorrow Ill be talking with the dealership manager or whoever runs that dealership. Only time will tell if its just a waste of my time or not.

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JARblue

Tell Carfax you want to know the name of the individual they spoke with at the police station.

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