Great story and to my point exactly. How can you blame Auto Check or Carfax for this---you can not. Cars sales are moving faster than any system could hope to keep up with. Your brother needs you with him before he buys---just sayin'

 

Yes, he is very well aware of that. In his defense, he did ask me to be with him to pick up the car but for some reason I was not able to make it. It was kind of heart-wrenching to see how sad he was when I told him all the things wrong with the BMW. I should have gone a little easier on him but to me they were just obvious things I ticked off one right after the other.

 

From now on---he works on YOUR schedule even if he has to rent a car for a week!!! Per Jimmy

 

Typically it only shows repairs that involved the insurance company. Its not nearly as useful as some people like to believe. If I wrecked a car and fixed it without the insurance company being involved its not going to show up on there. maintenance doesn't show up.

 

The flip side to all this is people don't need to get their panties in a bunch over buying a car that has been in a wreck. Hell, some cars have been in a wreck and repaired before they leave the factory. A significant wreck with an improper repair will be noticeable when you inspect the car, or have someone knowledgeable inspect it. If they just hung a new fender or popped a new hood on - there is no reason to feel the car is inferior to one which may or may not have had a panel replaced prior to initial purchase. It's just metal.

 

I can attest to this personally. I owned a Dodge Stealth for 8 years that I personally had SIX collisions with! (only one was my fault of course) It had already been in at least two accidents before I bought it. So it was involved in 8 accidents with 6 reported to the insurance company. Each time I got it fixed professionally, until the Insurance company dropped me and gave me a generous settlement offer of $3000 and let me keep it when the last accident nearly totaled it. I put a door and fender on myself on that one and drove it another 4 years. I know, it was a moving target! At the time I got rid of it, Carfax reported only three accidents. I was starting to fear that the car would die in the dead of winter because it had so many miles on it and had been in so many accidents. So, I traded it in for my Crossfire three years ago (got $800, it had 275K miles on the original engine). Yesterday I looked it up on Autocheck and found out it is still in operation here in Michigan as of March of this year. BUT I HAS A CLEAN HISTORY!!!! No reported accidents! It sold at an auction in Ohio and must have got Title-Washed. I could not believe it.

I learned two things from this, (1) don't trust Carfax or Autocheck, and (2) Dodge Stealth's are one tough frakin' car that just won't die!

 

you are absolutely correct and the reason behind it is easy...if a customer has an accident or paintwork and does not go through an insurance company or the police (i.e. just a bumper rash or mailbox damage) then ther is no way for carfax or autocheck (its rival) to pick up that info...

now, remember...just because a car has been wrecked doesnt mean its not worth buying...

 

yep, This Was Reported In Consumer Reports Mag. 10-12 Months Ago.

 

I agree, my Crossfire has an unknown - to me - history. I know of a different nose(SRT), painted panels, some small plastic pieces missing, sanding scratches on the hood, some small misalignment of one door. It has been a GREAT car though and so far has given me 3 years of driving fun for a good price. BTW it had a clean Carfax.