Any ideas on recourse here? Wife and I bought a used 2015 Subaru Forester this past Feb2018 from a Nissan dealership. Car looks good and drives great. CarFax was clean when we bought it. Wife decided she wanted to get a new Subaru so we went to trade this one in. When the Subaru dealer appraised the car they pulled a car fax and now there is a "damage report" on April 11 2016. So the carfax looks like this Owner 1 Purchased March 2015 Austin Subaru - Sold to Austin Subaru Feb 206 Vehicle Sold Mar 25, 2016 DAMAGE 4/11/2016 Damage reported to right side -- (Note Carfax began reporting this data 4/23/2018) Owner 2 Purchased 4/22/2016 Sold 10/31/2017 Owner 3 (Us) Purchased 2/2018 So somehow, someone posted a vehicle accident report on this vehicle 2 years and 2 owners later. Now the value of the car I have is approx 8K less than it should be and I feel like I've been ripped off. I've reached out to CarFax but they have been less than helpful and aren't concerned at all. What can I do?
Ouch, hopefully it's a mistake, but most likely it's someone who reported it late. It's shady but I have seen a lot lately that makes me think carfax and the other brands aren't worth a ****. For example... I've seen one recently where a branded dealership wasn't even having reports sent to carfax. I don't know if it was a mistake or a miss on who, but carfax wasn't showing that the previous owner traded the vehicle in a year prior with a known issue.
I'm trying to find out now from CarFax who filed the damage report. If it was Austin Subaru then they sold a vehicle they knew had been damaged, then waited 2 years and put the damage report in. Funny thing is... Austin Subaru is where we were trying to purchase the new vehicle.
Is Carfax really at fault here? They can only report what is reported to them, right? I would look at the fine print on the carfax report to see if they make any guarantees. I do understand why you would be upset. I also would be upset and frustrated.
Common problem. You have no recourse. Carfax guarantee is basically limited to guaranteeing the title, not that any maintenance/repair information is unavailable. Had the same thing pop up on my van when we went to trade it in that popped up 2 years later. I then refused to buy the used vehicle they were trying to sell me as if it was anything other than a pre-damaged vehicle. BTW, the dealership is just trying to rip you off. The value of your vehicle doesn't drop $8K on damage unless un-repaired.
It's a good point, but it's also why sometimes I think carfax sucks, I mean they might not be liable, but at the same time it can be a nice con, like say you're selling a vehicle and it was recently wrecked you slip the body shop some cash etc and they'll delay the report or not even post it. It's shoddy because carfax became a household name but I've seen it more times than not that dealers are benefitting and consumers are now the ones getting screwed. Source: I personally wouldn't do it but I've seen it done, the dealership I do car work on the side for doesn't do it either, but man... it's garbage.
Kill the fox. That's the first sign everyone should've had before using carfax. They are repped by a freaking fox.
All carfax will say is... any "contributer" can file an anonymous "report" at anytime. There is no burden of proof other than their word. And under no circumstances will Carfax inform the consumer who the report was filed by. There is no recourse for the consumer against these types of wrongful or fraudulent reports. Carfax, like HoneyBadger, don't give a ****.
1. I wouldn't do business with the car dealer. It might not be their fault, but I wouldn't give them the benefit of the doubt. 2. Can a mechanic tell you if there actually was any damage to the car that was repaired? It might not even be true.
^ Agree with number #1. Their loss - deal with someone else on the purchase of new. For #2, you can take it to Carmax and they will tell you what your car is worth and if any body work has been done and where. They are pretty good about finding what's been repaired even when it hasn't been reported - it's their job.
Man, I'm sorry to hear this, I was worried from the initial posts that they'd do this... I wish the public would realize this, the consumer gets screwed and not the dealer. The damn dealer is going to sell it at the higher private value or send it to a dealer auction. Some of the stuff I've seen there is even more questionable... I'm only doing this on the side from actual job, but there's too many crooks/shady stuff going on and not enough legitimate people running these things.
Right, but on #2 carmax is probably going to side with carfax unless you could maybe use that for private sale.. Unfortunately all consumers seem to follow carfax too, and with the hit, legit or not it makes it harder. I've had similar personal experiences regarding hits on a car, late filing/inaccurate/no filing but the car was certainly screwed etc etc. Fortunately so far they've been on an older nissan so it didn't matter. But 8k is robbery here
Yeah we're basically screwed. We're going to take it back to the other dealer that originally offered us the higher value on the trade in. Don't know if they pulled the carfax when they offered the price or not. If so maybe it's a non-issue and I'll just deal with that dealership. If not. I'll just keep the car and drive it into the ground. It's a good car and doesn't have any issues... my wife just wanted a different one.
