Help Deciphering a Carfax
02-06-2020, 09:20 PM
#1
Help Deciphering a Carfax So I'm looking at a used 2016 Corvette and the Carfax raises some red flags. I wanted to see if anyone had any ideas. It's listed as a 1 owner car, but the purchase wasn't reported until it had over 6k miles on it.
The dealer selling it also has an entry that says "Vehicle reconditioned." Does that have a specific meaning or is it a catch all that could mean anything from a rebuild to just a detail job?
Here's a link to the report if anyone can shed some light. https://www.carfax.com/VehicleHistor...142&source=BUP
The dealer selling it also has an entry that says "Vehicle reconditioned." Does that have a specific meaning or is it a catch all that could mean anything from a rebuild to just a detail job?
Here's a link to the report if anyone can shed some light. https://www.carfax.com/VehicleHistor...142&source=BUP
02-10-2020, 09:53 AM
#2
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The Carfax looks good to me - I looked at a ton of Carfax / Autocheck reports when I was shopping for my Yukon XL last fall.
Things that would concern me on a vehicle report are:
Accidents that required the vehicle to be towed - not all accidents are as bad as they seem, if a vehicle was in an accident but then they put 20k miles on afterwards then more than likely it was repaired and all is well - also a Carfax usually tells you where the damage was on the vehicle so you can look that area over more carefully.
Repeated service to the same component(s) (I saw one lower priced Yukon XL that had "Electrical system serviced" 6 separate times, sometimes back to back (withing weeks of each-other) - to me that was a sign of an ongoing problem that the dealership just couldn't figure out.
As far as reporting a vehicle sale - you have to read between the lines on that one, if a title is issued then it was sold you can see that happened at 6 miles - to me it looks like there are two owners for that car - the first in NJ then the second in SC (where the Carfax reports the sale). So to me it looks like Carfax misses the second sale so it doesn't appear to me to be a 1 owner car. So I would say there are some question marks there. I don't think that really effects the price you pay for a car if it's one owner or not - lastly it always concerns me a little bit when someone flips a car after only owning it a short time - it's more common on cars like the Vette but to me it's nice to see someone hold onto it for a few years.
As far as reconditioning that's just a fancy way for them to say the car was detailed.
Ultimately the eye test / test drive means more to me than any of the history - you can use history to weed out some lemons but seeing and driving mean more to me.
Things that would concern me on a vehicle report are:
Accidents that required the vehicle to be towed - not all accidents are as bad as they seem, if a vehicle was in an accident but then they put 20k miles on afterwards then more than likely it was repaired and all is well - also a Carfax usually tells you where the damage was on the vehicle so you can look that area over more carefully.
Repeated service to the same component(s) (I saw one lower priced Yukon XL that had "Electrical system serviced" 6 separate times, sometimes back to back (withing weeks of each-other) - to me that was a sign of an ongoing problem that the dealership just couldn't figure out.
As far as reporting a vehicle sale - you have to read between the lines on that one, if a title is issued then it was sold you can see that happened at 6 miles - to me it looks like there are two owners for that car - the first in NJ then the second in SC (where the Carfax reports the sale). So to me it looks like Carfax misses the second sale so it doesn't appear to me to be a 1 owner car. So I would say there are some question marks there. I don't think that really effects the price you pay for a car if it's one owner or not - lastly it always concerns me a little bit when someone flips a car after only owning it a short time - it's more common on cars like the Vette but to me it's nice to see someone hold onto it for a few years.
As far as reconditioning that's just a fancy way for them to say the car was detailed.
Ultimately the eye test / test drive means more to me than any of the history - you can use history to weed out some lemons but seeing and driving mean more to me.
02-13-2020, 07:36 AM
#3
Thanks for the reply. If it is a true 1-owner car, that would mean that time in NJ was as a dealer vehicle or something similar. If it was a demo, etc., that could be an indication of it being beat on during that time. Only way to know is check it out, but I wanted to see if anyone had seen similar entries on a CarFax and found it to be an indicator of something more serious. Thanks again.