Where do CarFax get their accident records from?

Question

I was just wondering Where do CarFax get their accident records from?? i got in a car accident and the insurance company paid for it. however, there was NO police report. So would CarFax say that i got in an accident??

Answer 1

I personally think CarFax is a load of cr*p.  I have searched 3 different times for any records on used vehicles that either myself or one of my sons were looking at.  Nothing came up.  We found out from one of the owners of the cars we were looking at that his car HAD been in a pretty major accident.  He was honest with us because he knew we were going to run it through CarFax and he assumed that it would show up.  However, it did NOT.

I work for personal injury attorneys, so since I had my one-month of unlimited access, I decided to pull out a few of our old files and look up the cars that were in bad accidents.  Nothing came up, unless the vehicle was totaled and the DMV was notified.  Basically, insurance companies don't really bother reporting accidents, even if they are major.  I guess it's still worth the money for CarFax just to make sure that the car has not been considered salvaged in the past, but other than that it is USELESS!

Answer 2

They get their info from a number of sources.  Check out the link and scroll down to "Information Sources" to see this:

"Carfax has access to five billion records from more than 20,000 sources, including motor vehicle departments for all 50 U.S. states and all 10 Canadian provinces. The company's information sources include U.S. state title and registration records, auto and salvage auctions, Canadian motor vehicle records, rental and fleet vehicle companies, consumer protection agencies, state inspection stations, extended warranty companies, fire and police departments, manufacturers, inspection companies, service and repair facilities, dealers and import/export companies.[12][13]

Although Carfax continuously expands its database and resources, some information is not allowed to be provided. Under the 1994 Drivers Privacy Protection Act, personal information such as names, telephone numbers and addresses of current or previous owners are neither collected nor reported.[14] Carfax does not have access to every facility and mistakes are sometimes made by those who input data. In the event information is disputed but cannot be verified, Carfax allows consumers and dealerships to add information to its reports.[15]"