I agree it is the best way for the average person, no doubt. I think the point is valid that it won't uncover everything and just because it has a good carfax report is no guarantee that the car is without bad history. No all insurance companies participate to let you know a certain car was involved in a repairable accident. If it has a salvage title it certainly will show up. I was looking at a Mustang in FL once and caught a roll back, the car had been a rental car previously. Carfax basically will provide information that the average person would not know but you still need to look the car over for flood or repair damage. Heck if my car sits in 18 inches of water and I clean it up and trade it in know one would know from a carfax. If you buy a car new and at 75,000 miles its rolled back to 45,000 miles and then traded, carfax would not know. If it wasn't serviced at the dealership it would not be detected unless a DMV inspection had occurred. So it is still buyer beware and a carfax is worth the money.