extreme78

Purchased a CPO ES350 in January and was told that the car is accident free. Ran the Carfax yesterday to found out that it was in an accident in April 2010 but Carfax started reporting that in April 2011(weird, they waited a year). That beeing said I never got a copy of a clean carfax from a dealer.
What are my options and do I have any? Like the car but the reason I went CPO was to avoid buying a wrecked used car!!!!
Any help will be greatly appreciated :-)

dman00001

Does it say anywhere in the CPO program documentation that CPO means the car was never previously damaged? If not, there's not much you can do.

Dave Mac

I don't think CPO promises no accident damage but if the dealer stated no accident and you are concerned you should talk to them. Was the repair done by a Lexus shop so they would have known about it even if not on CarFax? And what kind of damage was it? Dollar amount? I would not be happy with very much damage on a CPO either. Look into it further and good luck.

Dave Mac

flowrider

iTrader: (9)

On purchase were you given one of these completely filled out:

http://www.lexus.com/cpo/pdf/CPO_161_Checklist.pdf

This is the Lexus Program overview, it makes no statement about accidents but does, as the form above, say you should have been supplied with a CarFax:

http://www.lexus.com/cpo/overview/index.html

I would say you have a case is you escalated it to Corporate. Do you know how serious the accident was? If it was only a fender bender then I really wouldn't worry.

Lou

lgb0250

Well, since Carfax did not report this info until 3 months after your purchase I don't think I could blame the dealer for something they weren't informed of by them.

On the other hand, I don't know if it's a nationwide thing or only to NC, but down here unless a vehicle has been involved in an accident where the damage to the vehicle was more than 25% of the vehicles value, no damage disclosure is required!

This vehicle could have very easily been involved in an accident where the repair costs were say $5K and no disclosure by the person trading it in was required.

Check your state laws and GLTY.

MDames2

iTrader: (1)

If the damage was fixed correctly, I wouldn't worry about it. My car was in an accident about 3 years ago. There was quite a bit of damage to the front end. It was repaired well. I have had no problems with it since. It drives and rides perfectly. So unless the damage was repaired poorly, don't waste your time with worry. Just enjoy the car.

flipp4

I bought my es350 in april this year, I got a clean carfax with my car also, it showed one owner, no accidents. Well I do a little body work here and there and I can spot a blend, poor sanding, and a run a mile away, my car has all of that (sucks)! Anyways the point is that an accident will only show up on carfax if a police report was filled. Think about it, you could get into a small fenderbender and neither party wants the accident reported to their insurance company, so they both fix their cars out of pocket, so how could car fax know?

extreme78

Thanks guys.
Went to the dealer today and he said thats not a big deal, ther is 40000 fender benders in the US every day and as long as the car wasnt totaled they can certify it. And that the Carfax is usually few months late on their reports anyway...
So I really enjoy the car and it looks like it was repaired well. Im going to live it at that and hopefully put a 100k plus on it with no issues :-)

jkgs300

iTrader: (1)

I found out the hard way when i was trading my car in that carfax is a joke. The dealer ran my vin and found that the previous owner of my gs was in a accident in 2003 and "Carfax did not start reporting the accident until February 8th 2011", 4 years after I bought it with a clean carfax!

this is what i got from carfax.....
Response (Kim) 06/23/2011 04:37 PM
Good afternoon,

Thank you for taking the time to contact us by email. My name is Kim and I will be assisting you with your issue.

We regret any misunderstanding about our service and I appreciate you taking the time to inquire with us.

The CARFAX Vehicle History Report is updated regularly with information received from current and new data sources. Sources of accident data are not required to report information to our company, so the reporting of events is based on a source's willingness to participate with us and when they begin providing information to us thereafter. Since not all accident sources provide information to CARFAX, we continuously contract with new data sources for historical events in addition to receiving additional records from our existing sources that can date back several years.

CARFAX was not in receipt of the accident record from this data source when you originally ran our report, which explains why we were unable to provide this information prior. We understand your concerns regarding the timing involved but despite our best efforts, sources can take up to several years before agreeing to supply their data while others may never report information to CARFAX. When we receive new information from participating sources, we work as quickly as possible to update the information on our report.

Our company never promises consumers that it has a complete product but rather, mentions that is based solely on information supplied to us. Every report suggests using our service as one important tool along with a physical inspection in the car buying process.

I am sorry if you were under any other belief about what our service provided. We encourage all to carefully review notices listed on our Order Form prior to purchasing and throughout the CARFAX Report. We make ourselves accessible to any/all when questions need answering by our valued customers.

As for the accident details, CARFAX Reports display as much detail as we have been able to receive from our accident/damage sources at the present time. We continue to work with accident/damage sources to obtain as much information as possible and because we’re unable to report all event details, we recommend an inspection be performed in order to make a better purchasing decision.

Your best option to assess the damage would be to use our report with a vehicle inspection prior to purchasing. A qualified mechanic can check for signs of unreported damage and make sure the vehicle is functioning properly.

Please let me know if you have further questions/concerns I can address for you.

Thank you for the opportunity of assisting you today.

Sincerely,

Kim
Consumer Affairs Analyst

extreme78

The more I look at the way that Carfax operates, the more it makes me angry!
So when I go to shop for a pre owned vehicle the first thing that dealer does is put Carfax report in my face! When Im going to sell it the same dealer tells me that the Carfax is worthless and that their reports are often delayed by months if not years!]
I had spark plugs changed in my Ford E150 last month at the local shop and the carfax showed that right away.....My ES350 was involved in accident in April 2010 and they didnt show that for over a year! Somethings not right. Or maybe we relly on Carfax too much.....

Dave Mac

Another CarFax problem: I took a car into a dealer's body shop for an estimate on a inch size door ding with paint damage - paintless repair was not an option. They gave me an estimate for $2,200 to repaint at least half the car "for proper matching". I moved on and forgot about it until I went to trade the car and the used car manager/appraiser showed me the CarFax with "unrepaired body damage $2,200" I showed him the damage and we moved on from there.

Dave Mac

flipp4

Summary:

To whom it may concern,
We here at Car Fax don't know $%!#, please do your own investigating. Thank you and we hope we made you happy.

blu07es350

my cpo blew an oil line drivin 70 (in a 70mph zone) and all the oil came out and i took it to the dealer where i was and they said there was was recall the dealer that i purchased it from failed to fix. there was also another recall for the accelerator that wasnt done. YOU WOULD THINK THAT THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN FIXED BEFORE BEING PREOWNED!