Rep Power: 609

Does anybody know how to get a free car report for a used car? It would be a private sale. I know you can get them from dealerships, but I don't know how I can obtain one.

 
Rep Power: 609

Did you contact Carfax? I know they offer them to dealers but I thought you could get it from them directly, too. I could be wrong, so don't quote me, but I'd locate their website and check it out.

 
Rep Power: 609

I went to the carfax website once. They charged me $10. I was under the impression that if you are at the car dealers the carfax is free but the guy we were talking to at a car lot wanted to charge us. I see those commercials all the time about asking for the carfax. I wonder if it`s free now. Or maybe it`s just free at a dealer not a car lot. The also said that if the car was damaged and not reported to the insurance company it wouldn`t be on the carfax.

 
Rep Power: 609

I wonder if trying to get a car fax is even worth it then. I mean, you could buy a car that has been in an accident and it won't show up at all on the report?

Has anybody ever had any luck with a car report?

 
Rep Power: 609

[QUOTE=lilford;552956]I went to the carfax website once. They charged me $10. I was under the impression that if you are at the car dealers the carfax is free but the guy we were talking to at a car lot wanted to charge us. I see those commercials all the time about asking for the carfax. I wonder if it`s free now. Or maybe it`s just free at a dealer not a car lot. The also said that if the car was damaged and not reported to the insurance company it wouldn`t be on the carfax.[/QUOTE=lilford;552956]

Was it worth getting a carfax for the car you were looking at? Did you find out anything interesting? I wonder if it really helps with not buying lemons.

 
Rep Power: 609

A Carfax report is easily worth the $10 you spend on it. Even though it is true that an accident will not show up on the Carfax report if the owner didn't report it to their insurance company, other things do show up like the number of previous owners the car has had.

Personally I think that alone is worth the $10, but you also get a report on any title problems with the car such as odometer problems, salvage record and flood damage report.

There are lots of other things that come with the report, so I think it is easily worth it to spend the money before you buy yourself a headache.