Should I buy a car that has an accident on carfax?

Asked by voltdriver Jan 19, 2015 at 11:50 PM about the 2013 Chevrolet Volt

Question type: Shopping & Pricing

There is no structural damage and no deployment of airbags showing on the carfax.  
There is no additional information other than the date of the accident listed.

4 Answers

2,015

If it's at a dealership and the dealer took the vehicle in trade, ask if you can have the name and phone number of the person who traded it in (we actually post that info on the window sticker of all our trades, with the previous owner's permission). Then you can ask them how serious the damage was; we get cars all the time that just had a scratch in the fender, but they reported it as an accident and got a police report because they thought they had to (you don't- only if there are injuries). They may even have the original bill for repairs, which would be a huge help.

2 people found this helpful.
1,465

Depends on the damage... but the reality is that CarFax isn't the end all/be all... not all places report to it... a lot of times things can show up after you bought the car - so you pull a CarFax today and the car could look clean then 2 years down the road you want to trade and damage shows up when someone pulls it on you... to be honest, CarFax has become more of a marketing tool for dealerships than something to protect the consumer... so more cars out there have damage that you would think/know... so do your regular due diligence and have the car checked out by a mechanic you can trust and get his take on the condition of the vehicle - most mechanics will buy cars that have 'issues' because they realize an accident in the past doesn't mean much but will devalue the car so make for a better purchse...

2 people found this helpful.

Thank you both for your thoughtful answers. In the end I chose another pre-owned Chevy Volt with a few more miles and better features and a clean car fax. Very happy to have it charging in my driveway :-)

how will i bed your partnership and i will like to be one of your dealers,what is the procedure and what is the next move...

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