CARMAX SUCKS !!!

if a vehicle has been damaged and the claim is NOT filed with an insurance company , meaning it was fixed and paid for by the owner / shop , then the carmax report will show " no problems " . D.

Reply to
D.
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Well, of course. Carmax is basically a database of insurance claim reports. If no claim goes into the database, how can they report it to you?

That doesn't mean it "sucks." It does precisely what it claims to do.

--scott

Reply to
Scott Dorsey

Of course Carmax will show, "no problems." Carmax pulls repair data filed by insurance companies. If the insurance does not pay the repair bill, there is nothing for them to report, and therefore no data for Carmax to pull.

On the other hand, if a repair is so minor than a person can pay the cost on his own rather than to file a claim, then the repair is likely not worth being concerned about.

Reply to
Jeff Strickland

that is SO not true !

Reply to
D.

You're right, they also pull from the DMV records. If an accident is so slight as to fly under the reportable threshold established by the DMV, there will be on data for Carmax to pull. Carmax also pulls from smog check records and from reported dealer service, but this only gives mileage data, not wreck histories, so I ignored the data source.

Your original post implied that your only interest was in the wreck history. Wrecks are reported through the insurance carrier. My state, and I have no reason to think other states would be different, requires ANY damage that exceeds $750 to be reported. If one is driving along minding his own business and a fence post jumps in front of the car, and the damage is greater than $750 (I might be wrong, in which case the damage is greater than $500), then one must file a report with the DMV. If another car suddenly appears in your path, odds are very good that the damage will exceed $750, and thereby trigger a report to the DMV.

If the damage is under $750, then it would likely be very minor anyway, and I'm not sure why you would care if it was listed at Carmax or not.

You are the one that made the charge that a wreck did not show on Carmax records, I'm only trying to help you understand the conditions where that might be true.

Let me give another scenario. The car is older, say 10 or more years, and is in an accident that is not all that traumatic but the repairs exceed 70% of the value of the car. Given labor rates and parts costs, 70% of a low-value car is pretty easy to do in a very minor accident. IF the owner even called the insurance company to see if the repairs are covered, this will trigger a salvage title because the insurance will determine the car to be a total loss. Since the repairs would exceed the $750 limit, there ought to have been a report filed with the DMV, but since the owner opted to do the repairs himself, he might have skipped that part. If the car was not covered anyway, then the owner might simply undertake the repairs and never call the insurance company, and Carmax would never know since the state was also not notified.

You discovered that Carmax is not perfect, all I'm doing is telling you what might cause the loop hole that you found. You can bitch at me if you want, but all I'm trying to do is help you understand the pitfalls that you already discovered.

Reply to
Jeff Strickland

Do you mean Carfax?

-dk

Reply to
DK

Carmax, Carfax, et al give you the bad news. But, the absence of bad news is not necessarily a good thing, and does not imply that there

*is* no bad news.

I guess that's a much too subtle a thing for many people.

I use Carfax and similar to tell me which cars I should definitely walk away from, not which cars I should definitely buy. It's no less valuable for that, if you think about it.

Reply to
Dean Dark

There is always bad news. That's the way cars are.

A friend of mine is a doctor, and he said that his surgery instructor in medical school assured the class that every person alive today has at least three things wrong with them that require surgery, and that it was their job to find out what those things were for each patient.

Cars are like that.

--scott

Reply to
Scott Dorsey

replying to D., ken_lylif wrote: I used to work for this company and I can honestly tell anyone who is looking to buy a car, that you should stay away from CarMax. They state that they inspect the cars, but I can tell you that they DONT. CarMax states they don't sell cars with flood or frame damage yet I have sold 5 cars to customers that they had inspected and found out that those cars did have frame damage and where not inspected by CarMax and another sales guy sold 3more and that's just the customers who went and got a separate inspection. I know for a fact that CarMax just does a little carwash and makes the car look somewhat presentable but they do not fix hardly anything. The financing is quick but the interest rates are extremely high no matter how good your credit is. Stay away from this company they are strickly about profits and don't care about the customers or there employees I was let go because I kept bringing up these issues to management and they got mad at me because I wouldn't keep my mouth shut about the problems. Company Sucks Cars are CRAP. Plus don't believe them about the clean Autocheck they offer most of them have a dirty carfax but wont show the customer that.

Reply to
ken_lylif

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