Buying a Used Car: Is Getting a Carfax Report Enough? (Spoiler: No)

When buying a used vehicle, ordering a Carfax report feels like doing your homework. It’s the responsible thing to do—check for accidents, verify ownership history, look for title problems. And it is smart. You absolutely should pull a vehicle history report.

But here’s what too many buyers learn the hard way: a clean Carfax and a clean car are not the same thing.

Carfax tells you what’s been reported. It doesn’t tell you what’s actually happening under the hood right now. And for a $15,000, $25,000, or $40,000 purchase, that gap can be very expensive.

What Carfax Actually Tells You (And What It Can’t)

Let’s be clear: vehicle history reports are valuable. They provide information you can’t get any other way:

What Carfax Shows	What Carfax Can’t Show
Reported accidents	Unreported accidents
Number of owners	How the car was driven
Service records (from participating shops)	Current mechanical condition
Title issues (salvage, flood, lemon)	Wear items that need replacement
Odometer readings over time	Problems that haven’t triggered codes yet
Regional history	What the car actually drives like today

The key word in that first column is reported. Carfax only knows what’s been submitted to their database. And plenty of important information never makes it there.

For a detailed comparison of what each tool provides, see our Carfax vs. Inspection comparison page.

The CPO Truck That Wasn’t What It Seemed

This story illustrates exactly why history reports aren’t enough—even from reputable sources.

A buyer purchased a certified pre-owned truck from a major dealership. The dealer provided a Carfax showing no accident history, no airbag deployments, and clean title. The CPO certification suggested the vehicle had passed a rigorous inspection. Everything looked perfect on paper.

When the buyer went to trade the truck in a few years later, a different dealer pulled a vehicle history report from a competing service. That report revealed two prior accidents—including a moderate-to-severe collision with airbag deployment.

How did this happen? The original accident may have been repaired at a shop that doesn’t report to Carfax. The insurance claim may have been processed differently. Or the data simply fell through the cracks. Whatever the reason, the “clean” Carfax was incomplete.

The result: thousands of dollars in diminished trade-in value for a vehicle the buyer thought had perfect history.

A physical pre-purchase inspection would have found evidence of collision repair—paint thickness variations, panel alignment issues, replaced components with different manufacturing dates—regardless of what any database said.

Why This Matters Even More for Out-of-State Buyers

If you’re buying a car remotely—whether you’re relocating to Spokane, purchasing sight-unseen from another state, or simply can’t fly across the country to look at a car—the Carfax limitation becomes critical.

Carfax tells you about the past. But you’re buying the car as it exists today.

A vehicle with perfect history can still have:

• Worn brakes that need immediate replacement
• A transmission that’s starting to slip
• Suspension components that are fatigued
• Leaks that aren’t visible in photos
• Electrical gremlins that haven’t been diagnosed yet

When you’re buying locally, you can at least drive the car yourself and get a feel for it. When you’re buying remotely, Carfax is often the ONLY information you have—and it’s simply not enough.

Remote buyers need someone physically present who can tell them what the car is actually like right now. That’s what an inspection provides. For more on protecting yourself as an out-of-state buyer, see: No Return Law for Used Cars in Washington State.

The Unreported Accident Problem

Here’s a scenario we see regularly:

A buyer pulls a Carfax. It’s clean. No accidents reported. They feel confident proceeding.

We inspect the vehicle. The paint depth meter shows the front fender has been repainted—the readings are significantly higher than factory spec. The gap between the fender and hood is slightly uneven. One of the headlight assemblies has a different manufacturing date than the other.

None of this appears on Carfax because the repair was either:

• Done at an independent shop that doesn’t report to Carfax
• Paid out of pocket to avoid insurance involvement
• Fixed by the previous owner themselves
• Processed through an insurance company that doesn’t share data with Carfax

Is this collision damage a dealbreaker? Not necessarily. But it absolutely affects value and might indicate underlying issues. Without an inspection, the buyer would never know—and would pay as if the car had never been hit.

What Carfax Does Well (Use It For This)

To be fair, Carfax excels at certain things:

Title history — Salvage titles, flood damage titles, lemon law buybacks, and other title brands are generally well-documented. Carfax is excellent at catching these.

Regional history — Where the car has been registered matters. A vehicle from Minnesota (road salt) faces different issues than one from Arizona (UV damage) or Florida (hurricane/flood risk). This information helps us know what to look for during inspection.

Odometer verification — Carfax tracks mileage over time, making odometer rollbacks easier to catch.

Ownership pattern — How many owners, how long each kept the car, and whether it was a personal vehicle or rental/lease.

Recall status — Open recalls that need to be addressed.

These are all valuable data points. Pull the Carfax. Share it with us when you book an inspection—it helps us know what to look for. But don’t stop there.

The Smart Buyer’s Approach

The best protection combines both tools:

Step 1: Pull a Carfax (or AutoCheck, or both). Screen out obvious problems—title issues, excessive accidents, suspicious mileage. This costs $40-100 and eliminates problem cars before you invest more time.

Step 2: If the history looks acceptable, schedule an inspection. Now you verify what the report shows and discover what it can’t: current mechanical condition, unreported damage, wear items, and developing problems.

Step 3: Use both to negotiate. A Carfax showing regional concerns (rust belt history) combined with inspection findings (actual rust on the frame) gives you concrete negotiating leverage.

The math: A Carfax costs around $40. An inspection costs $225. Total: under $300 to know exactly what you’re buying on a purchase that could cost you thousands if you get it wrong.

For a complete breakdown of how these tools work together, visit our Carfax vs. Inspection comparison.

Don’t Take the Seller’s Word For It

Even well-meaning sellers may not know their car’s true condition.

Most private sellers aren’t mechanics. They may genuinely believe the car is in great shape because it runs fine and hasn’t given them trouble. They may not know about:

• Deferred maintenance that’s adding up
• Developing problems that haven’t failed yet
• Previous accident repairs done before they owned it
• Wear items approaching replacement

Dealers are better at identifying issues, but they have different incentives. A dealer’s goal is to sell the car. They’re not required to volunteer every potential concern—only to avoid outright misrepresentation.

An independent inspection serves YOUR interests, not the seller’s. We have no stake in whether you buy the car. Our job is to tell you what we find.

What an Inspection Reveals That Carfax Can’t

During a comprehensive pre-purchase inspection, we physically examine and assess:

Mechanical systems — Engine condition, transmission operation, cooling system, exhaust, steering, suspension, brakes. We road test the vehicle to feel how it actually drives.

Evidence of repairs — Paint thickness readings, panel gaps, welding, and replaced components that indicate previous collision or body work—reported or not.

Wear items — Brake pad thickness, tire condition and age, belt wear, fluid conditions. These are costs you’ll face soon, and they affect what the car is actually worth today.

Developing problems — Leaks, unusual noises, codes stored in the computer, components that are functioning but deteriorating.

Overall condition assessment — Does this car match its price? What does it need now? What will it likely need in the next 12 months?

This is information no database can provide. It requires eyes on the vehicle.

Frequently Asked Questions

If my Carfax is clean, why would I still need an inspection?

A “clean” Carfax means no problems have been reported—not that no problems exist. We regularly find unreported collision repairs, worn components, and developing issues on vehicles with perfect Carfax histories. The report tells you about the past; an inspection tells you about the present.

Can Carfax miss accidents?

Yes. Carfax only knows about accidents that are reported to them. If a car was repaired at an independent shop, paid for out of pocket, or fixed by the owner, there may be no record. We find evidence of unreported collision repair on a significant percentage of “clean Carfax” vehicles.

Is Carfax or an inspection more important?

They serve different purposes. Carfax reveals history; inspection reveals current condition. For complete protection, you need both. If forced to choose one, an inspection tells you more about what you’re actually buying—but combining both is the smart approach.

Should I pull my own Carfax or use the dealer’s?

Both contain the same information. The advantage of pulling your own: you see it before the dealer knows you’re interested, giving you information leverage. The advantage of the dealer’s: it’s free. Either way, read it carefully yourself rather than accepting the dealer’s summary.

What about AutoCheck or other history reports?

AutoCheck pulls from different data sources than Carfax—sometimes it has information Carfax doesn’t, and vice versa. For high-stakes purchases, some buyers pull both. But all history reports share the same fundamental limitation: they only know what’s been reported.

How much does a Carfax cost compared to an inspection?

A single Carfax report runs about $40-50 (or around $100 for unlimited reports). Our inspection costs $225. Combined, you’re spending under $300 for complete information on a purchase that could cost thousands if you get it wrong.

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Carfax is a tool, not a guarantee. It tells you what’s been documented in a car’s past. An inspection tells you what’s real about the car’s present. Smart buyers use both—and make decisions they won’t regret.

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