Buying a used car?
Think paying for Carfax is a good idea?
Think Carfax is too expensive?
Want free information about your car's history?
Take the VIN number from the vehicle* into it's respective car dealer (Ford car to a Ford dealer, GM car to GM dealer, etc) and ask them to run a car history for you (service department would do this)
It takes the dealer seconds on their computers and should be able to give you a complete repair history, selling dealer and whether or not the vehicle is over 100,000 miles, been under water, totaled, etc.
* Your VIN (Vehicle indentification number) is located several places on the vehicle. In the drivers side door jam and drivers side dashboard (visible though the windshield) are the two easiest places.
Posted by Quality Weenie at October 4, 2005 08:23 AM | TrackBackWow, this is great to know thanks!
BTW, get ready for some hockey whoopass! :)
Posted by: Michele at October 4, 2005 10:39 PMHow would the dealer know this information? How could they know it? I'm sure they could get some from traffic reports, but is there other information?
Posted by: Ogre at October 5, 2005 02:22 PMWhen your vehicle is totaled, under water, etc the title is flagged (there is a technical term but it's escaping me at the moment). That information goes to the DMV.
The auto companies do a dump of titles from the DMV for this information, the dealers draw from the auto companies databases and wala they get that information on their screens.
As for the over 100,000 miles any dealer that does repairs on vehicles and find out/know that it is over 100,000 miles are required to put a sticker in the door jam and report it to the system.
Posted by: Machelle at October 6, 2005 08:30 AM