Cautionary Tale - Autocheck

[jophish17]

I recently learned something that I thought was worth sharing about Autocheck for anybody who might consider selling their car.

The tl;dr version is simply this:
1. Always check the vehicle history before selling a car
2. Autocheck lists both "Accidents" and "Collisions" and leaves it up to the consumer to differentiate
3. Keep all records!


I listed my car for sale on AutoTrader last fall. After I listed the car, I got quite a few nibbles but no one really bit. I wasn't in a hurry to sell, so I didn't really pay much attention or put much effort in.

Months went by with little activity. I thought at first it was the time of year, so I waited for spring. I thought the price was a bit too high, so I lowered it. Yes, the miles are fairly high at ~76k, and this is a car with limited demand, but it has a clean, well-documented history, is a rare color combo, and most importantly it's in great shape - why won't anyone buy it?!?

Tired of the tire kicking, I decided to say screw it and took it to Carmax for a quote. They came back with an offer of 16k$. leaving me to ask "wtf?" As it turns out, they had pulled the Autocheck and it showed an accident. Of course I now felt like a jerk for describing it as "no accidents!" in the ad, but more importantly I was confused since it also reported the accident was in Florida but my car had not been in Florida at that time. It took a few minutes to realize that the report was from my car was broken into in 2012. I had looked at the vehicle history report a couple years ago, but it wasn't there at that time; I should have pulled a more recent report.

I panicked a bit but eventually found a number to call Experian in regard to Autocheck. I spoke with an agent who explained to me that they define an accident as "any loss against the will of the owner" (or something legal-y like that), and that the break-in counts as an accident. They also noted that it was not listed as a collision in the report, so I should be happy about that. Fair enough, I can follow that logic, but I explained to the agent that the average consumer doesn't easily differentiate between an accident and a collision, thus killing the value of my car (this is really why I am sharing this)

I asked if there was a way to have this removed, and the agent told me that the chances were slim. I told them I could provide documentation, and they said they would review. I sent in the police report, the repair shop bill, and even a couple photos showing the extent of the damage. My obsessive compulsive traits really helped me because - to my surprise and delight - they did end up removing the accident, once again restoring my car's honor!

Now off to create a new FS ad!

[MZHammer]

Wow. Some due diligence and a few phone calls is going to earn you a few thousand bucks! Thanks for taking the time to share.

[Finnegan]

Great info!

[AmmarYasirA]

Glad to hear you got it all sorted out! I'd definitely be in your position by trying to make calls to get things cleared up. Who knew break-in's were considered "accidents." But in the position of the buyer I think they may possibly be sketched out but by the events that happened to your car, so it's good that you're the owner that went through it so you can explain it to them.

You should definitely hold out on that sale for a little bit though, there's a little MFest mountain cruise in the next month or so and itd be nice to have ya there!

[Kimo]

Originally Posted by jophish17

to my surprise and delight - they did end up removing the accident, once again restoring my car's honor!

A good result, to be sure, but what about Carfax? Won't it still appear there, as they use the same public records as Autocheck?

[jophish17]

^ surprisingly (or perhaps not?) it was not on the carfax report, so I didn't have to go through the dispute process with them

[Kimo]

Originally Posted by jophish17

^ surprisingly (or perhaps not?) it was not on the carfax report, so I didn't have to go through the dispute process with them

Cool . . . I rarely get that lucky, but when I do, it's all the better.