CarFax Report

[laawaaris]

There is a vehicle that is sitting at a dealership I am thinking about buying. It is a 2004 Infiniti G35 Coupe with good miles. The dealer is selling it for an awesome price, but then I looked at the carfax report:

http://www.carfax.com/cfm/ccc_Displa...CV54E64M827175

Its a freely viewable report and it says that the car was owned by a guy in Florida for 2 years, then all of a sudden it was sold at an Auction and shipped from Florida to Texas.

Is this something I should be worried about? Why would it be sold at an auction so abruptly? And then why would it be shipped all the way from Florida to Texas for sale at the dealer.

I'm guessing the guy may not have been able to make his payments, so it was repossessed. But I honestly don't know.

[OTRphoto]

Well it says it was a leased vehicle, so maybe the guy just didn't want to renew the lease and the dealership auctioned it off to get rid of it quicker than putting it on it's lot?

Just my thought...

But it has a clean history and not bad on the milage...

[laawaaris]

hmm, yeah that makes sense too ...

it's a steal of a price too ... about $3,000 less than other g35 coupes ... plus its RED!

[DigitalScape]

Two years ago Florida was hit by several hurricanes. It is possible that this car was subjected to a lot of water at one time. I do not know how you go about verfiying this.

[extxdpscamaro]

I worked for eBay Motors for almost 5 years and I handled most of the southern states and I wondered where my dealers(mostly used-car dealers) bought a lot of their cars. Most vehicles are brought to the U.S. from foreign car makers are delivered to major ports in either Alabama, California and Florida. So, there are LOTS of cars in Florida! For a Texas used car dealer to buy from a Florida auction isn't uncommon at all(especially since one of the largest dealer auctions is out of FL!). I wouldn't worry too much about an Infiniti... but there are 3rd party inspection companies like SGS Inspections that will go to the vehicle and give you their unbias inspection of the vehicle. They are good at what they do. They do the inpsections for certified pre-owned warranties for Lexus, Toyota, BMW, Infiniti... http://www.us.sgs.com/automotive_us?lobId=22689 Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions. I'm not with eBay anymore but I know the industry pretty well; I now teach Police Officers how to use their mobil computers and software. Take care!

If you'd like to check a little more reputable VIN check/vehicle history database also consider www.autocheck.com They pull from insurance and credit systems instead of unregulated state DMV databases. What may have a rebuilt title in Florida could have a clear title in Texas. I would just make sure that the car is what the dealer says it is. Remember you're buying a car from someone that knows NOTHING about that specific car so just make sure to do your homework. ;)

[Steelsun]

Leased vehicles are a danger sign - the previous operator did not "own" it so may not have taken care of it as well as they should have. Even more, it might have been a company lease, in which case you might have tons of people who drove it without care.

Get a third party inspection. It's worth a couple hundred $ to save thousands and potentially avoid major headaches.

[kenw]

get an inspection for sure.

realize that carfax only reports what it is told. lots of repair shops do not input to carfax. In fact, most don't.

I would take the $$ spent on a carfax report and use it instead on a good mechanical inspection.

[tjavery]

Originally Posted by Steelsun

Leased vehicles are a danger sign - the previous operator did not "own" it so may not have taken care of it as well as they should have. Even more, it might have been a company lease, in which case you might have tons of people who drove it without care.

Oh yeh! Just like a rental. "Drive it like you stole it"

[JamesB]

on the news last week they did a story about cars that were "totaled" by insurance companies, but later turned up at auction with a clean title with NO record of any damage what so ever.

this is probablly what happend to this car, and its turnig out to be a lot more common that first suspected.

James

[jerrykr]

I subscribed to Carfax for a month, because I wanted to check out a car my daughter had already bought. Carfax showed it had a clean record.

But, all the guys I work with knew I could run as many Carfax reports as I wanted during my month subscription, so they all brought in the VIN numbers to every car they owned.

Funny thing, every report was good and clean. These owners knew things about their cars that were not on the Carfax report. Things that should have been on the report if the report were of any value.

The suggestion to get a professional evaluation of the car being considered is a good one.

I'd hate to get a lot of money into a car that had been flooded. Today's cars are filled with electronics. Electronics and flood waters would not be good.

just my .02.

[Steelsun]

I regularly 'help" friends in Texas with running VINs through my PI databases.

If it's a Texas vehicle, I'll look up who the previous owner was before the current one, and then they can be called and questioned about the car.

Mostly it's no big deal, but we have found a few cars that way that were involved in major accidents, although not 'totalled' by insurance companies.

[Steelsun]

Just sent you a PM on who the owner was In Florida, and their phone number. Give them a call and ask about it.

(I was lucky that I had some Florida VIN access today - usually I only have Texas)

[chenology]

one of my friend's car got t-boned... did not make it on the carfax report..

[laawaaris]

hey guys thanks so much

i went and looked at the car today ... while it is a sweet LASER RED color, the interior of the car had some scuffs ... almost everywhere i looked from the door to the dash to the leather there was a very minor cut, scratch or blemish

there were also some very minor body cuts, not major but i saw them

put together, i decided i didnt feel too comfy buying the car ... plus the dealer would not give any ground on his price, no room for negotation ...

i can't say exactly why, but i feel pretty good about my decision to walk away from the car

i'm still on the prowl though, and hope to have an infiniti g35 coupe soon!

[ndsimm]

CarFax does offer refunds for the cost of the car if something is found later about a car that is not on their report