DGS49
Diamond Member
A few years ago I bought a car (VW Golf Sportwagen TDI) with about 36,000 miles on it, from a dealer, as a Certified Pre-Owned vehicle ("CPO"). As part of the transaction, the car's CarFax was produced. The CarFax showed a brief bit of history as follows. Owner 2 takes possession of the vehicle on, say March 15, 2017, and "Front-end damage" is reported on March 17, 2017. At the time, the car had 25,000 miles on it, more or less. The note at the bottom of the CarFax history says that there is no information on whether the "damage" was the result of a collision or some other unfortunate event.
Obviously, after seeing the note, I went over the front end of the car to see if I could detect any damage, and I could not. There is no visible damage, paint overspray, or anything else indicating unprepared damage. In my mind, the facts that, (1) the car was still on the road eleven thousand miles later, (2) it had passed two PA state inspections in the interim, and (3) the dealer was willing to "certify" the car ( and give me an extended warranty) were sufficient to put my mind at ease. The car now has 61,000 miles on it, and there has been no "front end" problem of any sort.
Whilst looking at a replacement car the other day (I get tired of my vehicles after 18-24 months), another VW dealer said he would have to de-value my car from the previously agreed $10,000 to $7,000 because of the note on the CarFax. I consulted with an acquaintance who buys cars for a large dealership, and he opined that a 10% hit was appropriate, because some customers would simply not buy a car with any flaw in the CarFax. That seems reasonable to me.
What do y'all think?
If a recent "defect" showed up on a CarFax, I might be concerned because problems relating to the incident might not have shown up yet. But something that happened 36,000 miles ago...something that is literally undetectable on the car? Should I be punished because some prospective buyer is an idiot?
Of course, I walked away from that dealer. He was so far off a reasonable position that I simply wouldn't do business with him.
Would yin buy an apparently-perfect car with an "old" CarFax defect?
Obviously, after seeing the note, I went over the front end of the car to see if I could detect any damage, and I could not. There is no visible damage, paint overspray, or anything else indicating unprepared damage. In my mind, the facts that, (1) the car was still on the road eleven thousand miles later, (2) it had passed two PA state inspections in the interim, and (3) the dealer was willing to "certify" the car ( and give me an extended warranty) were sufficient to put my mind at ease. The car now has 61,000 miles on it, and there has been no "front end" problem of any sort.
Whilst looking at a replacement car the other day (I get tired of my vehicles after 18-24 months), another VW dealer said he would have to de-value my car from the previously agreed $10,000 to $7,000 because of the note on the CarFax. I consulted with an acquaintance who buys cars for a large dealership, and he opined that a 10% hit was appropriate, because some customers would simply not buy a car with any flaw in the CarFax. That seems reasonable to me.
What do y'all think?
If a recent "defect" showed up on a CarFax, I might be concerned because problems relating to the incident might not have shown up yet. But something that happened 36,000 miles ago...something that is literally undetectable on the car? Should I be punished because some prospective buyer is an idiot?
Of course, I walked away from that dealer. He was so far off a reasonable position that I simply wouldn't do business with him.
Would yin buy an apparently-perfect car with an "old" CarFax defect?