Autocheck Adventures

[Dangermouse]

In the search for a new DD, I bought an unlimited Autocheck account to help find that rarity – a dishonest car dealer. It’s amazing how many people go quiet when you ask for a VIN number. One guy has been selling a number of Z4s (in different colors) that all “were my mothers”. When asked for a Carfax, he would send a grainy photo of the front page and claim the actual report is on his computer and will send it to me soon.  And surprise, surprise, I would never get it.


For fun, I ran a reports on various cars I previously owned, mostly pre-carfax. Interesting to see what became of them

I found one, a 90 Ford Probe that was severely front end damaged about 6 months after I sold it and then marked as salvage.

Another, an 88 Mercury Sable had a recorded “moderate” rear accident 7 months before I bought it, which of course wasn’t mentioned during the sale. Whether that played a part in it catching fire outside the library 5 months after I bought it may never be known.

The guy that bought my Explorer put 60,000 miles on it in 2 years, which is pretty impressive.

My recently departed minivan is now chugging away around Dahlonega GA (Sean, you didn’t just invest ?)

Interesting what you can learn from da interwebs

[Farrar]

After my Duster was considered totalled by State Farm, I took the measly check they gave me and used it as a down payment on another car. A mere few weeks later, I saw my old Duster on the Interstate. Evidently someone had bought it from State Farm with a salvage title and sold it across the state line -- it had a Mississippi tag on it. Probably the owner had no idea it was totalled.

Farrar

[Dangermouse]

F*%^$ DMV

Got the title back for the new DD yesterday and they've managed to F-up the mileage, so now it looks like it has been rolled back. After all our efforts to only buy a car with a clean carfax/autocheck and we've been royally screwed.

So now I have to track down the PO and get a signed affidavit on the correct mileage and pay the DMV $18 to fix the problem.

But it won't really be fixed as it will still appear as a rollback.

aaahhhhhhhdmv

[Stainless]

I have very limited trust in Autocheck and Carfax. For fun, I checked the history of my DeLorean, and to my surprise, it stated that it had been in an accident.

Not only did it say that it had been in an accident, but it said that it was a "severe" front-end accident. The ridiculous thing about this, besides the car never having been in even so much as a fender bender, is that the car was on jack stands getting a overhaul at the time this so-called accident took place.

So I don't know what source Autocheck used, but it is obviously wrong, and since I never plan on selling the car, I don't care to fix this. What would you do?