Carfax question

[LJtheunicorn]

Planning to drive 4 hours to check out an 04 LJ tomorrow, I ran the carfax this morning and the vehicle is an 04 but wasn’t registered until July 2006. Does anyone have any ideas as to why it wasn’t registered until then? I don’t think it was a dealer vehicle during that time either because are date or registration it only shows 355 miles.
We’re the LJ’s not very popular in their debut year?

 

[Chris]

The most obvious answer is that it sat at a dealership for the first several years. In fact, I would bet on that.

 

[LJtheunicorn]

It’s a Jeep though that sounds unheard of!

 

[tr21triton]

they might of used it as a dealership vehicle to run parts, take the owners out or whatever, when i would go to dealer auctions we called them brass hats. because of the miles on them they couldn't be sold as new but had never been registered and had to be sold as used, good deals for the buyer....if you dont mind having a BRAND NEW car thats 1 or 2 yrs old

 

[Moab]

Is it to late to contact carfax?

 

[Jerry Bransford]

The only thing Carfax knows about is what is reported to them through official channels. They won't have any more information on it than you see.

 

[Fixer6]

It’s the Jeep they had mounted on top of a large pole out front, or on top of the dealership.

 

[Moab]

The only thing Carfax knows about is what is reported to them through official channels. They won't have any more information on it than you see.

I meant carfax may have some direction in what that means generally. Not to this specific vehicle.

 

[rancholago]

I'll second that part about carfax, only reporting what has been reported to them. Years ago, I bought a vehicle at the local ford dealership, found a piece of paper with description of thousands of dollars of damage, and the car fax came back clean. The dealer ship started off raving about the vehicle having a clean car fax and what a good deal it was.... not so much.
Since that time I don't put much stock in Car Fax, its only as good as the input

 

[MutantNinjaTJ]

I don't pay much attention to clear Carfax reports, as said above, they are only as good as the input is. And that is pretty selective from what I've seen.

 

[Goatman]

Carfax can only tell so much. Mostly of dealership work done correctly. What it won't say is all the half assed work done in someone's driveway. So always keep that in mind. Your eyes and experience are the best indicator of how a vehicle has actually been cared for. Good luck.

 

[suicideking]

I wouldn't worry about it. Unless the carfax says something bad, you can assume nobody reported anything.

People rely too much on carfax. When I sold my wife's car, it had been in a minor fender bender, door scratched. I didn't mention to the tire kicker because I forgot about it. When he found out, he acted like the car had a salvage title, was pretty proud of himself.

 

[bucky]

I bought a 89 Salvaged Title YJ in 91. Still have it and it’s going strong 29 years later. The inside of the frame is really the only hidden space on a wrangler. Everything else is relatively viewable. I trust my eyes more than Carfax.

 

[Moab]

I dont trust carfax over a complete vehicle inspection. You absolutely have to do both. I'm a licensed private investigator. So i know my way around a database.

But i have to say ive been blown away by the amount of information you can get from a carfax. Ive had to buy several vehicles in the last 5 years. Because if accidents etc. Etc. And i ran a carfax every time. On multiple cars each time we bought another one.

It cant tell you if a cars a piece of shit. Ive seen cars with great carfax reports. But the inspection showed a massive amount of repairs needed. Likewise ive seen sellers with notebooks full of receipts. That would leave u to believe it was a gem. Only to find out it needed five grand in repairs. So you cant really trust any one person or any one report.

But just one example. My current '99 Jeep. There were pages of data on my Jeep. That just a few years ago would have been unobtainable. That i would have never been able to get ahold of.

My Jeep had been side swiped in its first year. Back in MA or CT. I live in CA. I would have never been able to find that information. Unless the owner knew it and told me. (Which they didnt.) Likewise it had been maintained by its various owners. And the amount of maintenance and repair data was astonishing. It went on for pages. And showed every little dinky repair shop or oil change place that had worked on the car. Dozens of records. That the owner could not have possibly known. I dont know how these things get reported. But it appears after looking at many carfax reports that the reporting is very wide spread. Like even tiny little independent places report data.

Thankfully the accident my Jeep was in was minor. But having seen it on the carfax. I was able to specifically look at the repair. And have my inspection mechanic look it over too. And deem it a good repair.

I just bought an suv for my mother. The buyer was a young kid that had thrown on a few stupid mods. If u didn't know any better youd assume it had been abused in some way. But the carfax showed only one owner 6 months prior. That bought it new and had spent thousands on dealership maintenance over the years. Basically it was over babied prior to the kid. The inspection proved that it was indeed a great vehicle. Once you fixed the stupid cold air intake, botched headlight wiring and a couple other stupid things.

Dont throw the baby out with the bath water when looking over all avenues of data on a used vehicle. Buyers could have never imagined such data only a few years ago. For 40 bucks its not something to be avoided. Its just a new invaluable tool when looking for a used car. As long as u know its limitations.

No one report can tell you everything about a vehicle. But a carfax can show you a shit ton.

 

[williambmac]

Working for a dealership I can tell you.... Never believe a Carfax report.

You will never see a report on any rental company vehicle.

Most if not all rental car companies (Enterprise, Hertz, Avis) are all self insured and have their own bodyshops, so you will never see anything on Carfax.

I cannot begin to tell you how many vehicles I have worked on that were purchased from Enterprise and were train wrecks.

 

[Zorba]

Working for a dealership I can tell you.... Never believe a Carfax report.

You will never see a report on any rental company vehicle.

Most if not all rental car companies (Enterprise, Hertz, Avis) are all self insured and have their own bodyshops, so you will never see anything on Carfax.

I cannot begin to tell you how many vehicles I have worked on that were purchased from Enterprise and were train wrecks.

We owned a '91 T-Bird we bought from Budget. Other than the fact that they'd never changed the transmission fluid - so the transmission got gunked up - it was fine (Ford fixed it under warranty). We probably got lucky though. Embarrassing car to own though.

 

[Claytone]

I think the best thing about a vehicle report is that it tells you if it was in the rust belt for any amount of time. If it was, then I don’t even bother looking at it. That’s worth it for me. The other info is just gravy.

 

[williambmac]

We owned a '91 T-Bird we bought from Budget. Other than the fact that they'd never changed the transmission fluid - so the transmission got gunked up - it was fine (Ford fixed it under warranty). We probably got lucky though. Embarrassing car to own though.

I actually liked them, especially if it was the supercharged version.

 

[Zorba]

I actually liked them, especially if it was the supercharged version.

It just wasn't my kind of car - my wife wanted the stupid thing.

We were at a Ford dealership late on a Sunday looking at them. They wanted to know what I thought. "Its nice enough, just isn't my kind of car..."

"What's your kind of car?"

"Oh, about a '48 deuce and a half flatbed Dodge with a 2 speed rear end..."

They goggled!

 

[MutantNinjaTJ]

Jeep Carfax reports scare the hell out of buyers because they are bought and sold more then most cars are and they wonder "Why so many owners?" And they are sold about every three years on average, that is until one of us true TJ aficionados get our hands on it, and knows what they really have in their hands!