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Ian F
Ian F Dork
1/19/10 7:48 a.m.

I've read enough stories to make me weary of any car with FL title history... It seems Florida is a great state for title-washing...

CarFax is only as good as the information that has been provided to it. Not a perfect system by any means and IMHO a clear CarFax is worth little more than the paper it's been printed out on...

93celicaGT2
93celicaGT2 SuperDork
1/19/10 7:51 a.m.
Ian F wrote: CarFax is only as good as the information that has been provided to it. Not a perfect system by any means and IMHO a clear CarFax is worth little more than the paper it's been printed out on...

Yep.

I had a local Honda dealer try to sell me a 2000 Celica GT-S for $8k because it had a "Clean Carfax." They told me that because it had a clean Carfax, that mean it had never been wrecked.

Never mind the passenger fender that wasn't fitted right, the crooked hood, the passenger headlight being blatantly newer compared to driver's side, and the overspray from where they repainted that side. I offered $3500, and the salesman looked insulted, asked why.

So i informed him why.

I ended up talking to the sales manager, and he pretty much told me "look, you're probably right, so obviously this isn't a car that we'd like to sell you."

Hrmmmmm..... OKAY. Too bad, the car drove REALLY well.

93celicaGT2
93celicaGT2 SuperDork
1/19/10 8:42 a.m.
Datsun1500 wrote: Clean Carfax does not mean it has never been wrecked, it means it has never had a salvage title

Even without a salvage title, if accidents are reported to Carfax, they'll show up.

This thing had nothing on it, and the sales guy was sitting there calling me a liar, simply going off of that stupid piece of paper.

He even had the audacity to say: "It probably came from factory like that. The quality on these vehicles is nothing like the Hondas that we sell new, this is why we don't sell Toyotas."

Of course, at that point, i accused him of smoking reefer.

kb58
kb58 Reader
1/19/10 9:04 a.m.

My Midlana car will be able to use most FWD drivetrains, including VW. Anytime someone says they're thinking about using one, a bunch more people tell him to run the other way due to the poor reliability (VR6 gets a lot of grief.)

I've never owned a VW but my sister has a Passat. Between her car problems and the above opinions, I'm not sure I'd want one. That said, every time I see a TT, I think, "That's a really nice-looking car."

93celicaGT2
93celicaGT2 SuperDork
1/19/10 12:42 p.m.
Datsun1500 wrote: In reply to 93celicaGT2: The guy is using the term "clean Carfax" like the car had no accidents, what I am saying is he is using the term wrong. Most people will say the car has a "bad Carfax" just because an accident shows up. A Carfax with an accident does not make it a "bad Carfax" it will still qualify for the Carfax guarantee. Salvage or flood title makes it a "bad Carfax"

Yeah, that's probably it. I was just a bit miffed that he was trying to call me an idiot because i said the car had been in an accident, using the Carfax as a reference.

skullsroad
skullsroad New Reader
1/20/10 3:42 a.m.
jstein77 wrote: How in the world did a car purchased from damagedcars.com have a clean Carfax record? And that Audi, though really pretty, had an automatic. Ruins it for me.

It was a 6 speed. I'll never own an automatic. Every girlfriend I've ever had has been taught stick by yours truly just in case "shes the one".

Yeah the whole damagedcars.com was suspect. I'm going a different way. I can't find a TT I like as much as the black one I passed up. The bright side is when I finally find a comparable car I will have saved up enough for mods.

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