Most consumers like to know the history of a used car that they are considering to purchase to help them make an informed decision. This is obviously nothing new and is also very common when buying other higher priced pre owned items, like a home.
At Marion Toyota we offer what is called a Carfax Vehicle History Report. Customers often ask us just how reliable this information is that Carfax provides. That is a very good question, but also one that is very hard to definitively answer.
Carfax obtains their vehicle information from several different sources. Some of the ones they list are U.S and Canadian Motor Vehicles Agencies, Insurance Companies, Collision Repair Facilities, Law Enforcement Agencies, Auto Auctions, and Manufacturer / Dealer data exports.
This is where in my opinion, you cannot 100% completely rely on Carfax to always have (1) all of the information, and (2) accurate information. Let me give you a few examples. If someone has a one car accident and never called law enforcement to do an accident report then there is a good chance it would not show up on the Carfax report. At Marion Toyota we have seen instances where a person had a small accident in a store parking lot and the law enforcement officer did not fill out the report properly and it was reported as a normal accident (instead of minor), when all the car needed was a new bumper cover.
So why does Marion Toyota, and most dealers, use Carfax history reports? Because for the most part the information is correct. You just have to take into consideration that some may be missing and some may require you to look into exactly what happened a bit further.
At anytime Marion Toyota will show you the Carfax history report on any vehicle in our inventory and help interrupt the information the best we can to help you make an educated decision. If you need help trying to better understand the information on a history report that you have obtained for a vehicle not in our inventory, we would be glad to help you with that as well. Please contact us at 618-997-5692 or get more information at mariontoyota.com
