anybody see the abc world news tonite report on carfax? what a scam. it isn't worth the paper it's written on. 5th estate(a canadian investigative reporting program) exposed the scam years ago. carfax relies on insurance companies and police reports for their information. let me tell you, the police don't do any more paper work then they have to. as for insurance companies, what's in it for them? carfax actually does more harm than good. it contributes to buyer mistakes. there is also a segment on 20/20 tonite. it's good to be informed.

Carfax also does not provide any data on vehicles made (or at least sold in the U.S.) before 1981. I don't know how they deal with Canadian registrations.

But still, there is a difference between not being able to document all potential incidents, and being able to document some problems. It is like going to court. If the prosecutor can't prove the charges they call the defendent "not guilty", instead of "innocent". Not being able to prove something is totally different than being able to disprove it.

When we bought a used Sentra in 2009, the dealer used one of Carfax's competitors for the history report. I don't remember the name of the company off hand. The report showed the car had 3 previous owners, so we at least knew some history of the car. I guess there's no substitute for having the car physically checked out. Another alternative is to buy cars brand new or from someone you personally know. I own two vehicles that I bought brand new and we recently bought a SUV from my sister, who was the original owner (traded in the Sentra). The Z on the other hand, had 4 owners before me. Ironically, with all of the maintenance receipts and conversations with all of the previous owners, I know more history of a 42 year old car than a Sentra made 5 years ago!

Robert S.