I remember seeing a few of these threads in the past, but don’t remember who were the right people to ask. I’m thinking of buying a car as a private sale rather than a dealer and I’d like to check the Carfax since it has a rebuilt title. If anyone can help me out with that, let me know and I’ll send the VIN.
if the insurance company, or body shop group doesnt subscribe to carfax, nothing will show up on carfax. also, most cash (customer pay) repairs are not reported to carfax. just an fyi. understand the car had significant enough damage to receive a salvage/rebuilt title, it was deemed a total loss by an insurance provider. that is your first warning to run far, and run fast. you have been warned... good luck. Ski
I seem to recall a website that offered single carfax reports at a decent price. https://check-vin.org/ $5.00
List it on eBay with vin # entered. Check Carfax via ebay and cancel the listing. List it for $1million so nobody purchases it while you check Carfax report.
I know, but a lot of places do subscribe and update Carfax. Nevertheless it doesn't matter anymore, because a simple google search of the VIN showed me what I needed. That car was listed on Copart in the past and it was utterly fucked! Like fucked enough that I'm not even sure why someone decided it was worth their time to fix it. Even though it looks to be in immaculate shape now, I don't really trust it. It was totaled at 2900, then current owner bought it with a rebuilt title and fixed up, and put almost 3000 miles since and is now selling it. Makes me wonder why she's selling it so soon. And considering the asking price is only about 10-12% below what DEALERS are asking for the same thing with a clean title and no accidents....I'm gonna pass on it. Interesting work-around! Didn't know this was a solution. Good to know for the future!
NO, not even close. Insurance companies total automobiles for fiscal reasons. it is more cost effective to settle the loss, than to repair the automobile and deal with that repaired auto for it's life cycle. take flood vehicles for example, yep, you can dry them out, clean them up, disinfect them and they "look" like new or pre-loss condition. until the water intrusion rears it's head as electrical gremlins, and other "issues". those vehicles for the most part are now being branded as flood vehicles, and listed for scrap only, no way to "clean" the title, and "rebuild" it as salvage and make it a whole, legal, on road, licensed, drivable vehicle, again. no one is giving a salvage title to an auto with a scratch, or broken headlamp. really bad choice of words, for someone in the industry. Ski
Back when I was looking to replace my Dakota, I found a Jeep Grand Cherokee that had a "clean carfax" at a dealer. In the drivers side front frame area you could see a pull tab welded to it.
Over the past couple of years just casually shopping for a replacement truck... I was utterly amazed at what some dealers get away with for charges. A couple would advertise a truck at say $29,000... by the time fees, taxes, tag, & title were added... the price was a few hundred shy of $40,000. I found my most recent acquisition was found on Autotempest. https://www.autotempest.com/ You can refine the search to eliminate "salvage titles" or any other schenanigans like multiple owners.
You can have a salvage/rebuilt title for a flood vehicle. And I would totally buy one depending on the situation and condition. I have a friend that bought a flooded brand new F-150 limited several years ago from a dealership whose lot got flooded. He got it for $30k...again brand new, and that was a Limited, so would've been somewhere around a $55k truck back then. Came with a salvage title and the kicker was that the water level never got to the floor on that one. The water was about halfway up the wheels, so half the wheels and rotors were submerged for awhile, but that's it. I would totally get a salvaged vehicle for like half price because of some rusty rotors! lol Those are rare though. I'm guessing that dealership had a bunch of vehicles that did get properly flooded, and they filed a huge claim for all of them and insurance paid for everything rather than inspecting them one by one. What I'm wondering about is a couple of cars I've seen, which I'm actually interested in, that have rebuilt titles because "windows were left open in the rain and water got in", but both claim it's nothing bad and the interior is in great shape. I've left my windows opened before in the rain by accident and I never thought to make an insurance claim for that, since it wasn't all that bad....so just how bad does it have to be for someone to make a claim and have it salvaged??
This was what I found after googling the VIN. Hard pass for me. I'm not totally against getting something with a rebuilt/salvage title, but not if this happened to it at some point. I don't have a picture of the way it looks now, but image that but in perfect condition.
Take your carbon tubbed vehicle out and put a scratch deep enough to make through the carbon weave on the tub and get back to me. The window of vehicle value to repair cost gets smaller with every generation. The electric wonders are going to be disposable for this very reason.
Indeed! And the records I found showed that it was purchased at an auction from copart for $8700 (winning bid, so before fees...so realistically probably easily over $10k). Wonder how much it cost to fix, but my paranoia tells me that if someone spent that much on such a damaged car, spent a bunch to fix it, and was still able to sell it for a profit, they likely did some shady hack jobs during the repairs.
Thanks Rick. egg, instead of posting a meme and laughingly pissing off the spammer why not snitch first?
