Carfax takes vehicle information from police reports, accident claims, insurance accident repairs and from DMV registrations.
A lot of information that is not shown in a Carfax is more than likely withheld due to certain states reporting procedures. Some states do not have requirements or have programs in place to record accident/insurance claim repair.
Some states do not give out any DMV information unless it was released by the owner of the vehicle.
www.carfax.com/cfm/hcwhereinfo.cfmI bought a used 87 Nissan Sentra and the dealer swore up and down that it had been in Washinton state since it was bought new.
There was nothing really wrong with it except that is seemd to have a lot of corrosion in some different places.
For the first couple of years after we owned it we were always finding sand in the strangest places.
A couple years after we sold the car I did a Carfax search on it.
Turns out it had been sold brand new in Hawaii to Avis and that it was a rental fleet sales car!!
It had recorded registrations from Hawaii, GUAM, Idaho, Washington State and California (the Cali and WA state registrations were from before I owned it).
Had I seen a copy of the Carfaxe report I would not have walked away from it, I would have run!
Still, we bought it with 67,000 miles on it and it had 184,000 on it before it threw a rod through the block.
My old 64 Plymouth Valiant doesn't show up, but my Dad's 1957 Plymouth Fury does.