When you’re buying a used car, what you see is not always what you get. The vehicle may look beautiful and clean, and it might purr nicely during a short test drive. How do you know the power steering pump isn’t about to break? What assurance do you have that the transmission has only a few hundred miles left in it?
You don’t. But one way you can arm yourself with more knowledge is to read a report called the CarFax, a name which refers both to the facts it contains the quickness of its availability. A CarFax lists many things the vehicle has “experienced,” from different owners to repairs to accidents and other mishaps. Running this report online can cost about $15. It is acceptable to ask the seller to provide the report and cover the cost.
Although CarFax adds a disclaimer on the bottom each report releasing itself from responsibility for “errors or omissions,” the list can help you as a used car buyer make a more informed decision about whether to buy a particular car.
One of the reasons I got my current vehicle, a 2000 VW Beetle, is because the CarFax looked pretty good. Listed first in the report: my car had only one previous owner, no accidents, and no structural issues. On the second page, I found out the owner only put about 11,500 miles on the car each year, “less than the industry average of 15,000 per year,” my CarFax reports.
Then, I can also see the list of repairs done on the car. The only notable entry is a fuel filter replacement last year. Since the car is so old, I concluded that it is in for more repairs down the road, so to speak – but I took this allowed me to negotiate a lower price for the car.
In short, it’s nice to have that extra information on the car you are about to buy, from a source other than the person or dealer whose first interest is to make the sale.
To get a CarFax, make sure you have the VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) of the car whose history you want to check. This is a 17-character identifier usually found on the dashboard or the doorjamb sticker on the driver’s side door. Then, go to www.carfax.com and enter the number to get your report.
Generally, you will want to do this if you are a private owner hoping to sell a car. And if you don’t have any potential buyers yet, consider posting some ads online. A lot of times you can do this for free, on websites such as Craigslist.org and BestCarFinder.com. The latter might be an especially good choice for you if you are a private seller, because some buyers go to BestCarFinder.com specifically to find cars that are for sale by owner.