Today my daughter and I went looking around for a used car. We found her a clean '03 Ford Focus with 30K miles on the odometer. After giving the car a good lookover and test drive, we had the dealer print us out a CarFax report. The report listed a "Accident Indicator Reported". The detailed vehicle history part of the report shows the car was checked in to a collision repair facility about 2 months/3,000 miles after the car was first purchased in March of '03. Then it shows it had a regular service stop 10 days/100 miles later, and again 1 month/1,500 miles later. After that, just regular service intervals until it was sold at an auto auction as a fleet vehicle. The rest of the CarFax report is clean and it lists the car as being a 1-owner car.
As for the body, all the gaps between the panels are equal. The hood, hatch and both doors shut the way they should. There aren't any cracked lens or trim pieces, and all the paint matches up. While it does have a few very small dings here and there, the only real noticeable descrepancy is the corner of the hood on the driver's side, up by the windshield isn't flush with the top of the fender.
The car runs, stops, and handles good. It tracks well, doesn't pull or pulsate when you stomp the brakes, and it doesn't leak or smoke. The engine itself is spotless.
We have the car for the rest of the weekend, so tomorrow I'm going to put it up on some ramps to get a better look underneath.
So far what do you think? And do you think the Accident Indicator Reported is a concern? Or do you think that whatever happened was
27,000 miles ago and if handles and runs good, don't worry about it...? Probably just a minor fender bender, right...? What's your thoughts?Patrick '93 Cobra