No doubt about it, if you’re purchasing a used car you need to learn how to understand a CarFax (CF) Report. On most used car lots, the dealer runs a free CarFax on many of their cars. Every automobile made since 1981 has the 17 character VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) stamped on many components of the car’s body.

Run your own CF if the used automobile you are considering in does not have one.. Buying a used car without reading the CarFax is just simply goofy. It costs a few dollars and can save you a small fortune in return.

You have no say in the affair when your car is involved in a collision and the body shop reports the damage to CF. When a car flunks the state emission inspection, that fact is reported to CarFax. CarFax is alerted when water damage destroys a car by a flood, hurricane, or other types of water damage.

There are teams of criminals that buy destroyed and water damaged cars and repair them up; you would not know that they were totaled. Well, until about six months later when the entire automobile rusts to a hulk one night. If your automobile wears out all four tires in two months you might then realize the car had been destroyed in a terrible auto accident and was fixed up to look new.

The reported number of owners, and class of owners, can keep you from purchasing a heavily used corporate/municipal car that was purchased, for a few dollars, and repaired to look like it was driven by a little old lady. If the odometer has been fiddled with odometer warnings point out this fact. A Geek, with a PC, can easily roll back the electronic odometer setting.

All sorts of whacky legal things can affect the car title. CarFax catches all kinds of scams, run by crooks, that can impact the car title. There are salvage, junk, rebuilt, fire, flood, hail, lemon, mechanical limit types of titles and CarFax alerts you to anything but a normal title.

Pay for a CarFax if there are no problems with your used car for sale and make copies and hand to folks who drop in to see at the car. CF will buyback the car if the buyer finds something that CarFax missed – that warranty is on every car that passes all their checks.