Vehix, CarFax reports

Anybody here used these services to find out the history of a used car?
How do they collect such info, anyway? A car might be serviced by
different shops and even by the owner which may not submit a record of
the service to any databases. Just curious ...

KJ

 

I can say that autocheck.com is less expensive and often
said to be more reliable.

I did not know about authocheck.com and used carfax.com
while searching for a hobby Honda this past summer.
Carfax.com quickly eliminated many of the Craigs List
candidates, due to odometer tampering and/or salvage title.

Service info is completely unreliable, IMO. Dealers do not
necessarily report service.

Here is what carfax says at its site:
"CARFAX receives information from more than 20,000 data
sources including every U.S. and Canadian provincial motor
vehicle agency plus many auto auctions, fire and police
departments, collision repair facilities, fleet management
and rental agencies, and more."

Here is autocheck.com's comparison to carfax.com:
http://www.autocheck.com/consumers/autocheck-carfax-compare.do

 

You got it.

Anything they know has to be reported to them, and it has to be reported
completely. No report, no record. Partial report, partial record.

I had a minor fender-bender with my Integra eight years ago. It went
through insurance, but does not show up in CarFax. My insurance company at
the time apparently did not bother to report the incident to CarFax.

California appears to be one place where reporting is fairly complete, even
down to smog check failures. Many other jurisdictions do not display such
diligence.

 

Oh good! Even a blind pig finds an acorn once in a while. ;-)

KJ