This is a long post. In short, never never trust Carfax and Autocheck.
If you have other advise for potential used car buyers, please share.
Here is my story --
I was very happy 3 weeks ago. I found a "perfect" X5 with the right color and the right packages on eBay. The car is in TX. The seller is a small dealer. The seller and I agreed on a price, $46k. I thought it was a good deal considering the packages that it has. I did all the due diligence that I could think of, Carfax, Autocheck, googling on the seller, etc. Everything came out clean. I flew down a few days later. While picking up the car, I did the test drive and visual inspections. I am not a mechanics, but thought of myself as mechanically competent and pretty good with cars. I crawled in and out of the car, checking the gaps around doors and hood to see if the gap are even. The car ran fine, no unsual noises. There were a few mishaps. The seller listed the car as having a cold weather package, but I found that it really only had the heated steering wheel. It was a bummer, but I thought that I can live without the cold weather package. It was missing a second key also. Given all that, the seller agreed to take another $500 off the price. We then went to the bank and I got a cashier's check. Back to the car dealer, we did the usual paper work, such as the no-warranty thing, then off I started my long drive home. In all these excitement (and lack of sleep), I completely forgot about the title (yes, stupid me). About 80 miles out, I remember about the title. I had only thought that they forgot to give it to me because before I flew down, I confirmed with the seller that he has the title in hand. I called the seller, at that point he told me that I would need to wait 2-weeks for the title to released from bank. I didn't feel comfortable with it, and thought about returning the car to them (which he said that he can take it back if I don't feel comfortable leaving without the title). Since I had waited for a long time for the right X5 to come along, at the back of my mind I hate to lose it, so I decided to trust him. A week and many phone calls later, the title showed up at mydoor. I thought my trouble would end there. I started frequent these forums and ordering accessories for the X5. I went to the dealer to get the 2nd key and did the pulley recall thing. No problem there. I then found out that the rear entertainment system remote doesn't work, so I went to the dealer to fix it. At the visit, the dealer informed me that they couldn't fix the remote, and suspect that the car was wrecked before. I told them no way since carfax and autocheck said they were clean. In any case, the dealer refused to fix the remote until I agree to pay if they find the failure is due to an accident. They also showed me why they think it was wrecked. My heart sank. Today I took it to carfax for an appriasal, they confirmed that it was wrecked before and has frame damage and only offered me $34k. In anycase, I will get rid of it soon as I can't let my wife drive my kids around in a damaged un-safe car. Lesson learned here, don't trust Carfax and Autocheck, what they say is just a little more than what is on the toilet paper.
If you have other advise for potential used car buyers, please share.
If you have other advise for potential used car buyers, please share.
Here is my story --
I was very happy 3 weeks ago. I found a "perfect" X5 with the right color and the right packages on eBay. The car is in TX. The seller is a small dealer. The seller and I agreed on a price, $46k. I thought it was a good deal considering the packages that it has. I did all the due diligence that I could think of, Carfax, Autocheck, googling on the seller, etc. Everything came out clean. I flew down a few days later. While picking up the car, I did the test drive and visual inspections. I am not a mechanics, but thought of myself as mechanically competent and pretty good with cars. I crawled in and out of the car, checking the gaps around doors and hood to see if the gap are even. The car ran fine, no unsual noises. There were a few mishaps. The seller listed the car as having a cold weather package, but I found that it really only had the heated steering wheel. It was a bummer, but I thought that I can live without the cold weather package. It was missing a second key also. Given all that, the seller agreed to take another $500 off the price. We then went to the bank and I got a cashier's check. Back to the car dealer, we did the usual paper work, such as the no-warranty thing, then off I started my long drive home. In all these excitement (and lack of sleep), I completely forgot about the title (yes, stupid me). About 80 miles out, I remember about the title. I had only thought that they forgot to give it to me because before I flew down, I confirmed with the seller that he has the title in hand. I called the seller, at that point he told me that I would need to wait 2-weeks for the title to released from bank. I didn't feel comfortable with it, and thought about returning the car to them (which he said that he can take it back if I don't feel comfortable leaving without the title). Since I had waited for a long time for the right X5 to come along, at the back of my mind I hate to lose it, so I decided to trust him. A week and many phone calls later, the title showed up at mydoor. I thought my trouble would end there. I started frequent these forums and ordering accessories for the X5. I went to the dealer to get the 2nd key and did the pulley recall thing. No problem there. I then found out that the rear entertainment system remote doesn't work, so I went to the dealer to fix it. At the visit, the dealer informed me that they couldn't fix the remote, and suspect that the car was wrecked before. I told them no way since carfax and autocheck said they were clean. In any case, the dealer refused to fix the remote until I agree to pay if they find the failure is due to an accident. They also showed me why they think it was wrecked. My heart sank. Today I took it to carfax for an appriasal, they confirmed that it was wrecked before and has frame damage and only offered me $34k. In anycase, I will get rid of it soon as I can't let my wife drive my kids around in a damaged un-safe car. Lesson learned here, don't trust Carfax and Autocheck, what they say is just a little more than what is on the toilet paper.
If you have other advise for potential used car buyers, please share.