Used cars can be hard to judge, since body work and cosmetic repair can easily hide any underlying problems. This is where services like Carfax come in to give detailed histories of the car, for a nominal fee. As it turns out, this report can easily guide you away from spending thousands on a car that is bound to break down in no time at all.
Unfortunately, Carfax does indeed charge for their services. You will be spending around a ballpark figure of $30 for a single Carfax report. Carfax reports are able to be bought in bulk as well, which lowers the amount of cost per report. For dealerships and frequent buyers, the unlimited reports option would be a very good idea to investigate. Do keep in mind this will only last 30 days, however, and you may need to renew the subscription.
When you go to a used car dealership, you should ask if the dealership pays for the Carfax report. You will find that when pressed and pressured, the dealership will indeed pay for the report if they haven’t already. Using this method you can get a Carfax history report at no extra cost to you. If you don’t seem like you are serious about buying a certain vehicle, you may not convince the dealership.
Carfax also offers basic reporting for free. In using the free reporting service you will be extremely limited in the details you receive. Even so, you will be given access to information you previously didn’t have. This would be a good way to check for truth or lies in the seller’s statements about the history of the car in question.
If you go to an automobile auction in most states, you will be given a Carfax report in the majority of cases. Auctioneers will make more sales only by offerings potential buyers more as much information as possible, so that they may judge their investment decision. As a result you will see that most auction houses go ahead and front the fees for the Carfax report for you, which is a nice incentive.
Don’t be afraid to pay for a Carfax report, but to save money you should make sure that you are absolutely certain you think you would like to purchase the car. Even though you can buy a Carfax report for relatively cheap, only around $30 or so, this can add up if your car search ends up being longer than expected.
Final Thoughts
Few tools are as helpful as Carfax when buying a used car. Remember this next time you are at the used car dealership and need to buy a Carfax report to check against any type of deception or lies from salesmen.