The REAL TRUTH about CarFax

Since I now work in the body shop industry, let me share with you what I know to be fact about CarFax.
The 1994 Driver Privacy Act prohibits insurance companies from sharing claims information with 3rd parties without the expressed consent of the vehicle owner. That even includes body shops. Since I don't know of any owner dumb enough to send CarFax a copy of the 17k repairs done on his 4921 mile Jeep Liberty when he rolled it with weeks of purchase, that will forever remain his secret. The ONLY, and I do mean ONLY, reason to use a CarFax report would be to ferret out odometer fraud and a salvage titled vehicle. You see, they only have access to PUBLIC records.
Until the law is changed, and that could happen due to the number of flood damaged, "washed title" Katrina vehicles that are starting to surface (with clean CarFax reports I might add), you will likely never find any reported accident or frame damage on a CarFax. Their television commercials are misleading and they know it. I emailed them once about their deceptive accident report practices and they emailed me back an attachment from their website. It was their disclaimer. Funny how it took me over an hour surfing their website to find it on my own.
We frequently run into poorly repaired prior accident damage while making body repairs on vehicles. In most cases it has to be repaired to complete the current repair to spec. Insurance companies will not pay the added expense caused by these. This comes out of the owners pocket and it doesn't matter that it's the insurance company of the guy that hit you, you'll still pay.
So, anyone out there looking for a used accident free VX? Inspect it yourself or get a body shop to do it for you. It's the only way to prevent yourself from buying a multi accident, poorly repaired, VX from hell.

agreed! my gf bought a 95 del sol and had the carfax run, came back 1 owner (who happened to work at the dealership) and no accidents, the woman who owned it before even looked at the carfax and didnt say anything about an accident missing or anything.. the more i work on that car the more spots of overspray i find that definitely point to a repainted (poorly) car... and sure enough when i replaced the headlights... bumper wasnt aligned properly at all overspray areas i found were...

on the exhaust tip
on the lock barrel of the trunk
on the insides of the wheels
on the license plate bracket in the front bumper
also noticed the stickers that give the vehicle weight and tire pressures etc inside the drivers door is not there and in its place is a small sticker with a paint code on it

LOL, yep they are not much use.
I bought my 98 Integra Type R totaled, i then rebuilt it and totaled it again then rebuilt it again, then it got stolen. I got paid three times for the same car.

To this day it still shows two owners and no damage.. Do Not Ever rely on a Car Fax report.