Anyone ever CARFAX their own?

[bgcoleman]

I just CARFAX'd my 4th gen and apparently Toyota doesn't report to them?

My step-dad bought it new, i bought it from him, been serviced at Rosner Toyota of Fredericksburg VA or Toyota of El Cajon, CA every time but none of those show up.

had the timing head cover replaced at toyota of El Cajon under warranty at 74,500... however, last service it shows is at like 43K. has 131k on it now, running like a championship game. What gives? kinda p.o.'d.

 

[jimithing]

Not everything is reported to Carfax. If it's a Toyota and has been serviced at Toyota dealers I would suggest you register the VIN at the Toyota Owner's website and look at the service history on there. It should be much more detailed.

 

[MikeInNH]

Not everything is reported to Carfax.

By Carfax own admission....less then 5% of all service and accidents are ever reported to Carfax. That means that 95% of all service and accidents are NOT reported. Even if 50% of data was ever reported then their data would be flawed.

 

[BlackWorksInc]

The dealer and individual shops are not required by any law to disclose their records to CarFax (IIRC). As was stated, CarFax isn't all that accurate a service as people think.

If your vehicle was serviced at a Toyota Dealerships its entire life I would probably be able to see the entire history of the vehicle by its VIN. But, even then there are some oddities with doing that. I tried to help a fourm member out when they were looking at a used 4Runner and it had no service history, not even the PDI (Pre-Delivery Inspection) that should have been recorded. So either that dealership never digitized their records or they got lost or have not been entered in yet.

All in all, any information system is going to be limited by the amount of data that is inputed into it. Much of that Data has to be handled by humans and we all know humans err a lot. Point being, no substitute for a good file of all past receipts/work orders.

 

[bgcoleman]

thanks all - I guess that all makes sense.