HISTORY
Back in the day, the only history you might find was some maintenancerecords in the glove box. Now there’s CARFAX and AutoCheck, which have (^)
dramatically affected the car business. In theory, the information theyprovide should shed light on accidents, flood damage, salvage titles and (^)
other major issues. But they are nowhere near 100 percent accurate. Thenumber of cars I’ve had traded in that I know had bodywork (the owner told (^)
us or we found evidence of it ourselves) with a clean CARFAX history isabout 35 percent. So don’t take it as gospel that a clean report from one of (^)
these companies means the vehicle in question is truly accident-free.
The average car has been in one accident by the time it is four years old,and two to three by the time it hits six-figure mileage. In fact, over 20
percent of new cars have had some paintwork before being sold! It is theseverity of the accident and quality of work repairing it that really matters
(see below), so don’t put too much weight solely on finding a record of anaccident on one of these reports. But these reports do have an real effect (^)
on a vehicle’s resale value.