CarFax: Major Error In Report

[Delta0311]

Long story short I want to buy a M240xi next summer. So I had a buddy run a report on my car to see where I currently stand. What came back was full retardation.

Carfax merged data provided by my mechanic from my old BMW with my current BMW. I traded my 07 E90 328 at the beginning of September 2013, with 91,300 miles on the clock. I had my mechanic look my old E90 over in August of 2013, which is listed on the carfax for my current car. As well as some of the work I had done from 2011 to 2013.

So the day I purchased my 335 the report shows the dealer that I bought it from and that the mileage has been ROLLED BACK. Because the 335 had about 20k miles on it but a report dated one month back showed that it had 91,xxx miles on the clock, which is obviously because they merged data from 2 cars into 1.

[kb2wji]

I had a similar problem with CarFax last year. My Ridgline had 90,000 on it when I ran it through emissions. I had some work done at Honda and the tech entered "123,123" for the mileage. The following year (last year) I ran my Ridgeline through emissions with 110,000 miles. Went to sell it and noticed that the CarFax report showed an odometer rollback. I was pissed - didn't even realize that the tech entered 123,123.

Here's what I did: I filed a claim with CarFax (link on their website to "challenge" something). I explained the situation and CarFax told me that I needed to get a letter from Honda where they admit to fudging the odometer reading. Honda cooperated and I submitted the letter to CarFax. They deleted the false information from the report. Few months later, it happened again. Acura entered 123,456 as the mileage when they did some work - same friggin error. CarFax is a great tool but they do get a LOT wrong.

In a nutshell, file a dispute with CarFax https://support.carfax.com/article/r...carfax-report/ and see what they need from you to correct the error. It's a pain in the butt, and it takes a few weeks, but it's worth it to get false info off the report. Good luck.

[kb2wji]

I had a similar problem with CarFax last year. My Ridgline had 90,000 on it when I ran it through emissions. I had some work done at Honda and the tech entered "123,123" for the mileage. The following year (last year) I ran my Ridgeline through emissions with 110,000 miles. Went to sell it and noticed that the CarFax report showed an odometer rollback. I was pissed - didn't even realize that the tech entered 123,123.

Here's what I did: I filed a claim with CarFax (link on their website to "challenge" something). I explained the situation and CarFax told me that I needed to get a letter from Honda where they admit to fudging the odometer reading. Honda cooperated and I submitted the letter to CarFax. They deleted the false information from the report. Few months later, it happened again. Acura entered 123,456 as the mileage when they did some work - same friggin error. CarFax is a great tool but they do get a LOT wrong.

In a nutshell, file a dispute with CarFax https://support.carfax.com/article/r...carfax-report/ and see what they need from you to correct the error. It's a pain in the butt, and it takes a few weeks, but it's worth it to get false info off the report. Good luck.

[tdott]

Sounds like the shop was sending carfax information to the wrong VIN and mixed up your cars.

Sounds like a mess.

[Delta0311]

Thanks guys I talked to the shop. I know the owner and he is goint to sort it out this week.

[tdott]

Originally Posted by kb2wji

CarFax is a great tool but they do get a LOT wrong.

I wouldn't say carfax gets it wrong, it's the bad data they get sent that causes most of the issues.

[CLABRO]

Originally Posted by kb2wji

I had a similar problem with CarFax last year. My Ridgline had 90,000 on it when I ran it through emissions. I had some work done at Honda and the tech entered "123,123" for the mileage. The following year (last year) I ran my Ridgeline through emissions with 110,000 miles. Went to sell it and noticed that the CarFax report showed an odometer rollback. I was pissed - didn't even realize that the tech entered 123,123.

Here's what I did: I filed a claim with CarFax (link on their website to "challenge" something). I explained the situation and CarFax told me that I needed to get a letter from Honda where they admit to fudging the odometer reading. Honda cooperated and I submitted the letter to CarFax. They deleted the false information from the report. Few months later, it happened again. Acura entered 123,456 as the mileage when they did some work - same friggin error. CarFax is a great tool but they do get a LOT wrong.

In a nutshell, file a dispute with CarFax https://support.carfax.com/article/r...carfax-report/ and see what they need from you to correct the error. It's a pain in the butt, and it takes a few weeks, but it's worth it to get false info off the report. Good luck.

Similar thing happened with my brothers car. We had to file an appeal and go through the same steps you did. It took a month or two, but once CarFax received the information from the dealership, they corrected it.

With that said, everyone is human and makes mistakes. Whether that being the dealership putting in the mileage wrong, CarFax reading the data wrong or confusing it with another car, etc.

CarFax is a good tool to access when you're buying/selling a car. However, if a CarFax shows something out of the ordinary (especially if it's your car and you know it's not true) then it's worth it to do some digging to get it cleared up.