Vehicle History Reports

The time has come to help my soon be 16 yr old buy his first car. Anyone have any good suggestions for Vehicle History Report sources? CarFax seems to be the most thorough – and most expensive. AutoCheck seems more affordable and but doesn’t have the guarantees that CarFax does, etc. Really we’re probably spending less than $5000 and I just want to verify owner history, accident history and title. I know enough about cars to look for most mechanical red flags, etc. There are plenty of reports that just charge a buck per report but some seem a little shady. All other used cars I’ve ever bought were single-owner trades at a dealer and they already had the history ran. Probably going private seller, in this case Anyone have any recommendations?

Regardless of which report you buy, remember that it can take a long time for an incident to show up

Guys the best thing you can do is take any vehicle your seriously considering buying in for an inspection regardless if they inspected it or not. Do not trust it is ok. If someone does not want you to take it in then simply walk away. We offer a couple levels/costs of inspections at my shop and we have saved a lot of people from buying something they should not. If nothing else you will get a list of things that are needed or recommended and you can use that as a tool to get a little better price. If your looking in areas where you don’t know any shops look for AAA certified shops and of course look for good reviews.

Regarding the inspection- Contact your shop or others in the area up front, make sure you have one or two that can do last minute inspections. Maybe the market has slowed down but cars can move fast and no seller is going to want to wait a week if that’s the soonest you can get a vehicle in.

I moved to a new area and soon after needed a new vehicle. Probably didn’t help I had no relation built with any shops yet, but most reputable places were a week out for appointments, even for a vehicle inspection. Finally found a good shop that could do it next day, worth it as they found a $1,000 issue.

Car fax is the only one. Those $1 reports just show when the car was made and that’s about it. I have a 17 and 15 year old and just bought 2 cars with in the last year. You want a car that you can just put liability on or else its going to cost you $3000 for insurance. So for me that’s a car under $3500, pay cash and liability only is $650 a year. I do not worry about a car fax in that price range because the mileage is more important and how the car was taken care of. I found a one owner 2009 Kia Sportage with 127k for $2700 and a 2010 Nissan Sentra with 120k for $3000. Both were solid cars but needed little things done like one needed a ball joint and rear brakes, no big deal. The other just had some work done to it but had no leaks and just needed front brakes a good paint polish and tires. We tend to drive them more then the kids for running around town and leave the the new cars in the garage. Both should last the kids through collage.

When looking for a used vehicle for my daughter I brought one to a local shop for inspection. All three people in the shop said, “Unless you’re getting a hell of a deal, walk away!!”, which I did.
I did use CarFax on the one we bought and it showed an accident that the guy didn’t know about. It was his wife’s grandma’s car. He called his wife and she said her grandma didn’t want people to know about that accident because they might try talking her out of driving. It was professionally repaired and have had no issues in the 10 years we’ve owned it. The grandma was 92 when she bought the car and super low miles, 2013 Corolla.

What was wrong with that car that they told you to not buy it?

Netguy wrote:

When looking for a used vehicle for my daughter I brought one to a local shop for inspection. All three people in the shop said, “Unless you’re getting a hell of a deal, walk away!!”, which I did.

I’m with John… take it to a reputable shop for inspection. Case in point. We had a vehicle in with MAJOR internal engine damage… we gave the customer an estimate to install a used engine and they also got a trade value from sales. They ended up taking the vehicle out of the shop. Fast forward a month and the vehicle is back in the shop… with a new owner.

If I was spending ~$10-15k or more on the vehicle, I’d get a carfax. If you’re looking at spending $5k, I’d just take it to a trusted mechanic to get their blessing that the wheels aren’t going to fall off soon. In my opinion, in that price range pretty much everything is going to have some warts on it.

People can be and will be shady selling used cars, especially in the <$10k price range. Specifically salvage titles. One way to try to get comfort its not a salvage title is have them show you the registration. I believe in MN, the title would be stamped “prior salvage” or something like that. Some salvage titles are more worrisome than others. For example, if you’re looking for just a grocery getter, a salvage title due to hail damage is nothing to bat an eye at whereas if it was rebuilt after an accident, thats a little more concerning.

https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/dvs/forms-documents/documents/salvageandbranding_just_the_facts.pdf

FWIW… the vehicle I am talking about was at least a $18K rig.

bigcrappie wrote:

What was wrong with that they told you that?
Netguy wrote:
When looking for a used vehicle for my daughter I brought one to a local shop for inspection. All three people in the shop said, “Unless you’re getting a hell of a deal, walk away!!”, which I did.

Don’t quite understand what you are getting at. This part of the post is supporting taking the vehicle to a mechanic. I did and they said it was in bad shape so I didn’t consider buying it..

Netguy wrote:

Don’t quite understand what you are getting at. This part of the post is supporting taking the vehicle to a mechanic. I did and they said it was in bad shape so I didn’t consider buying it..

I think he’s asking what exactly was wrong with the vehicle?

Carfax and all the others only report what is reported to them. If you take your car to a 10 min lube, they don’t report an oil change, or 100000 mile fluid change like a dealer or some other shops might. My truck had a really clear line of maintenance on it in the car fax until one that said coolant level consultation. Work was done because my radiator has a date code on it that is way later than my truck but it wasn’t reported. The trail starts again after that.

Yes Sorry I was not more clear on my question. What was wrong with the car you brought in that they told you to walk? they must have found something they did not like.

tswoboda wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Netguy wrote:</div>
Don’t quite understand what you are getting at. This part of the post is supporting taking the vehicle to a mechanic. I did and they said it was in bad shape so I didn’t consider buying it..

I think he’s asking what exactly was wrong with the vehicle?

When I buy a car I look as much at the person I am buying from as I do the car. Are things taken care of around their house and garage or is the place a total dump, they normally treat and take care of their vehicles the same way as their other stuff.

bigcrappie wrote:

What was wrong with the car you brought in that they told you to walk?

There was a long list. What I remember was the tranny fluid was burnt so the condition of the tranny was suspect, front end was “loose”, some body work had been done and wasn’t that good and the overall condition was poor.

onestout wrote:

When I buy a car I look as much at the person I am buying from as I do the car. Are things taken care of around their house and garage or is the place a total dump, they normally treat and take care of their vehicles the same way as their other stuff.

Totally with you on this one. I do exactly the same. Leopard can’t change its spots.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>onestout wrote:</div>
When I buy a car I look as much at the person I am buying from as I do the car. Are things taken care of around their house and garage or is the place a total dump, they normally treat and take care of their vehicles the same way as their other stuff.

Totally with you on this one. I do exactly the same. Leopard can’t change its spots.

I do this as well, and I like to try to buy from elderly folks, vehicles, boats, wheelers. They seem to have a easier and well maintained stuff.