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So last year a large rock side swiped my car and put a quarter sized dent in my rear quarter panel. Along with a bunch of rocks on my hood, right fender, right door, and roof. All parts were repainted my a Lexus Certified Collision center. They pulled the dent and repainted and blended that panel along with the entire right side of the car. The only thing that was even replaced were the F badges on the side... Picture of rock chip:
Now here's what my carfax says......
I emailed carfax 2 weeks ago about disputing this and I have not heard from they despite sending follow up emails. Does the ding in the quarter panel warrant structural damage? In past experience, structural damage dramatically reduces the value of the car by half and most dealerships won't even take it, if I want to trade it in..... What the heck? Anyone with experience in this?
I’d talk to the collision center about that one. They’re the ones that report it
I did, they actually didn't. The date on carfax was the day that GEICO inspected it. I called GEICO, and they said they don't report to Carfax, but to a database.
Was just wanting to see if anyone had issues like this with Carfax in the past, with any car, and successfully got it changed. This seriously hurts the value of my car if I decide down the road to sell the car. I plan on keeping it for a loooong time, but life changes sometimes...
I did, they actually didn't. The date on carfax was the day that GEICO inspected it. I called GEICO, and they said they don't report to Carfax, but to a database.
Was just wanting to see if anyone had issues like this with Carfax in the past, with any car, and successfully got it changed. This seriously hurts the value of my car if I decide down the road to sell the car. I plan on keeping it for a loooong time, but life changes sometimes...
That really sucks and I’d be pissed. I would suggest posting this to something like reddit/cars or car talk etc since it reaches a much larger audience and somebody on their very likely has experience with this. Threres over a million subscribers on reddit/cars
I had a scratch on the bumper cover at the rear of my 2006 IS350. The moron police officer reported it as "moderate damage" and it cost me $3000 in trade in value on that car because it showed up on Carfax. It also made a perfectly well maintained car ineligible for Certified used status.
More than likely what happened is Carfax automatically links rear quarter panel damage with potential structural damage because the rear quarter panel is part of the unibody shell. Any time they see damage to a rear quarter, they'll call it "potentially" structural damage regardless of how minor it is. Once this happens, you are guilty until proven innocent.
IMHO, Carfax is worthless, and I mean utterly worthless. They're worse than the credit bureaus, and you have no commercial relationship with them, so you really have no recourse when their information is erroneous.
I had a scratch on the bumper cover at the rear of my 2006 IS350. The moron police officer reported it as "moderate damage" and it cost me $3000 in trade in value on that car because it showed up on Carfax. It also made a perfectly well maintained car ineligible for Certified used status.
More than likely what happened is Carfax automatically links rear quarter panel damage with potential structural damage because the rear quarter panel is part of the unibody shell. Any time they see damage to a rear quarter, they'll call it "potentially" structural damage regardless of how minor it is. Once this happens, you are guilty until proven innocent.
IMHO, Carfax is worthless, and I mean utterly worthless. They're worse than the credit bureaus, and you have no commercial relationship with them, so you really have no recourse when their information is erroneous.
yeah I figured that since it involved the quarter panel which is technically the structure, it would show up as that.and yeah I agree that Carfax is absolutely worthless, but to a dealership it isn’t worthless if I was to decide to trade the car in.
just an update for anyone curious, I got an email from some lady at Carfax this morning. They said they removed the structure damage form the Carfax, wow I wasn’t expecting that. They provided me a copy of the Carfax reflecting it too. So I guess it can be changed?
yeah I figured that since it involved the quarter panel which is technically the structure, it would show up as that.and yeah I agree that Carfax is absolutely worthless, but to a dealership it isn’t worthless if I was to decide to trade the car in.
just an update for anyone curious, I got an email from some lady at Carfax this morning. They said they removed the structure damage form the Carfax, wow I wasn’t expecting that. They provided me a copy of the Carfax reflecting it too. So I guess it can be changed?
Congrats! That's way better than what I have heard in the past. Maybe they're trying to clean up their image.
03-22-19, 07:53 AM
Rock chip reported as structural damage..
That could very well be a source for Carfax.
