history report lowers the car’s value between $500-$2,000, with anTIP: A good rule of thumb is that a report of an accident on a^
average impact of $1,000.
The markdown range we use if the CARFAX is “dirty” (shows a record of anaccident), when buying cars at auction or when taking a trade-in is $1,000
to $2,000, depending on the severity of damage listed on the reports.That’s how big an affect it has on the vehicle’s market value. Sadly, these (^)
companies not only don’t catch lots of accident damage, but they frequentlymisreport on damage that has occurred.
I had a very personal experience along these lines: my wife’s BMW X5 wasrear-ended at a traffic light. The damage our car suffered was fairly
superficial—the bumper skin, one muffler and part of the tailgate weredamaged. But CARFAX reported that our car had been involved in a
“severe” accident, deployed its airbags and had to be towed from thescene. It hadn’t—the old Buick that hit ours was what the report was
referring to. I spent six months fighting to have the report corrected, butevery time I provided the evidence CARFAX requested—photos, insurance (^)
reports and body shop invoices—they wouldn’t change it. I ended up sellingthe car for $3,000 less than it was worth because of their mistake.
MILEAGE
We have a saying in the car business: “You can’t pay enough for lowmileage or too little for high mileage.” The average car is driven 12,000-