If you are in the market to buy a used car, you MUST understand the CarFax (CF) report that each used automobile MUST have. CF is either supplied free, by the seller, or you, the buyer, must pay for the report. The typical CF report is 25 pages long - don’t panic there is a review page or two that sums the rest of the report. The study has six segments:

Vehicle History Report. This is page one of the CarFax - the most key page! This page at once sums up the total CF if 1) any accidents, 2) number of previous owners, 3) if the car was leased or corporate vehicle, 4) service records available, 5) detail event records 6) last odometer reading. Is the car a turkey or should you spend more time doing research - CarFax offers instant answers.

A summary of 1) title problems, 2) ownership history, and 3) other data follow. Critical items that CarFax has found can be investigated in just seconds. And that’s the secret of CarFax - only the items CF has judged to be a problem need to be researched; this saves lots of time and allows you to quickly discard cars with problems.

The Details section, below the Vehicle History Report, shows all events, like accidents, change in ownership, state inspections, etc. in one handy location. Each owner of the automobile has a segment with all the details CarFax has accumulated.

Vehicle Highlights. There are many segments in Vehicle Highlights. The latest mileage and the number of past owners is summarized in the Ownership History segment. A critical section is the state DMV-Reported Title Problems section. Check if the car’s title has been reclassified into: Salvage, Junk, Rebuilt, Fire/Flood, Hail Damage, or Buyback/Lemon titles. If this has happened, bypass this used car.

Warranty Check. Any warranty left for the various types of warranty coverage are displayed in this segment. Eliminate or affirm any seller’s claim about warranties in this segment. Basic coverage, coverage of the Drive Train, Emissions coverage, Corrosion coverage, and if any of the warranties are transferrable are some of the types of warranty reporting tracked by CarFax.

Safety & Reliability Ratings. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety crash tests are reported in this wonderful section. Front, side, and rear crash results inform you just how safe this used car is to drive. Injury, Collision, and Theft Indicator section grades this used car against all cars and gives you guideposts as to this automobile’s rating - below average, average, or better than average. Safety Recalls alert you to manufacturer recalls and you can check if the recall was done to the car. J.D. Power Rating is a wealth of data contained in the last segment.

Buyback Guarantee Certificate (Optional). If the used car qualifies, CarFax will buyback the car if they screwed up with damage warnings, odometer readings, titles, or a Lemon History reporting. Not all cars qualify and this should be your test too - You should NOT buy that used car if CarFax will not issue a Buyback Guarantee.

Consumer Ratings & Comments. Feedback from other car owners of this same model, make, and year of automobile are in this final section. Trust me, if there is a problem with this kind of car other owners will post their horror stories. Once you use CF you will advise folks of any troubles you have with this make of car.

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