Buyer Beware. It's a jungle out there!!

Been looking for either a 2005 stang or a 2006 model that might be a leftover car. So like I generally do, I took out a CarFax subscription and proceeded to go to work. I live in a fairly rural (by local standards) suburb of NYC but we have a ton of car dealers around here so there is a lot to choose from. Also the internet is great because most dealers post the VIN numbers on the net so I can do my preliminary research without ever leaving home.

I'm pretty surprised at the number of cars that have been in accidents, leased, fleet cars, multiple owner and way out of state cars bought at auctions that I am finding.

These are all at Ford and other dealers like Chevrolet etc. No private lot stuff.

It almost seems like the day of the one local owner trading in one car for another is kind of rare although I did find one or two nice ones, at least they appear to be.

Now I know Carfax is not perfect because I ran my daughters boyfriend's car and he has had 3 accidents, all major in terms of vehicle damage (none his fault)and none showed up because although he had police reports on all three he never filed the DMV report. Seems like that's the way to beat Carfax, at least in NY.

The last thing I want is a fleet car, and obviously I am not interested in a repaired wreck.

Makes me really wonder about Katrina and doctored up cars for sale. I saw a TV show that explained it is possible to register cars in states with lax title checking and then re-registering in another state to cover up a wrecked car.

Comments? Advice?

One thing I noticed is that the silver 2005 Mustangs are almost always fleet cars :) I guess Ford offered Hertz a good deal on them!

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John
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