Sleuthing a cars history through its VIN [BUMP]

[Fozzie_DeBear]

Hi Guys,

If I have the VIN for a used car, how do I go about pulling the history? Carproof? Carfax? I'd prefer not to spend any $$$ unless I have to.

There was a car bought through auction that had some work done to it (a ?DNS?) and I won't go near it unless I know more.

Any suggestions?

[tvp2003]

In Canada, CarProof >>> CarFax. It should tell you vehicle registration history, insurance claims, etc.

[lucky1]

Carfax has pretty limited coverage for Canada, Carproof, while more expensive, is definitely worth the money. Also, when you go to any of the registries to check title, run a lien etc etc on a vehicle, they simply run it thru CarProof, and charge you more$$
Also, take the VIN and scoot on down to your local dealer, talk to a service rep and get them to run the service history..they wont tell you details because of the privacy laws (dumb), but they will tell you if anything major in the way of service has been done to the vehicle.

Other than CarProof and a manufacturer dealer, thats about all you can do these days......but I do highly recommend CarProof, it has saved me quite a few times..

[pylon]

As a car biz guy I can tell you this. A lot of dealers in Canada use Carfax because it is hardly ever accurate on Canadian cars an misses tons of stuff. They know this sio they will use it on sketchy cars. We have done side by sides using the Carproof and Carfax. I have had 3 vehicles recently where Carfax has shown a clean bill of health, then Carproof has disclosed major accidents in the $15-20000 k range. Needless to say we cancelled our Carfax membership and run solely with Carproof now.

[Sample00]

Originally Posted by pylon

As a car biz guy I can tell you this. A lot of dealers in Canada use Carfax because it is hardly ever accurate on Canadian cars an misses tons of stuff. They know this sio they will use it on sketchy cars. We have done side by sides using the Carproof and Carfax. I have had 3 vehicles recently where Carfax has shown a clean bill of health, then Carproof has disclosed major accidents in the $15-20000 k range. Needless to say we cancelled our Carfax membership and run solely with Carproof now.

Being in the car business, I agree with my colleague.

[TimSJ]

X3 we only use carproof

[yads]

Yeah marketplace did an investigation on carfax and found that it's basically useless.

[ken0042]

Here's a question, and this thread seemed like a good enough one to bump.... I'm looking at a vehicle and ran a Carproof report on it. The report came back good; showing registrations in Ontario and Alberta.

But here's the thing- inside the driver's door is a Saskatchewan "Vehicle Standards and Inspection" sticker; which to me would seem to indicate the vehicle was registered in Saskatchewan.

Should I be taking this to Carproof and asking for my money back? Has anybody ever run their own vehicle (where they know the history of it) and found things missing?

[Pinner]

Seems odd a vehicle would be registered in 3 provinces.

I wouldn't buy any vehicle from down east,too much salt. IMO

[Huntingwhale]

https://www.carproof.com/