CarFax, please. :)

[Den]

If anyone has CarFax and would like to share, I'd appreciate it and will PayPal you a few $ if I get it before this car is sold.
Car is located a few hours away and I don't want to waste time + gas looking at a car that might have bad history. 23 hits is a bit above average for 10 years. . .


Thanks,
Den
ddddddden at yahoo com


VIN WBACG5327SAM51956
Year/Make/Model: 1995 BMW 318TI
Body Style: HATCHBACK 2 DR
Engine Type: 1.8L L4 MPI DOHC
Manufactured In: GERMANY
Search Results: 23 records found in our database

[pdxmotorhead]

Some dealers report the services, 23 could be very very good! Also carfax kicks up every title change, IE address.

My 95 had over 30 entries all harmless.

Dave

[Den]

That's a good point, but 23 hits and the fact that the owner has had the car only for a short time, has 0 service records, and offers me a better deal if I buy 'today' all make me leery of the deal. I probably wouldn't bother, but she's black on black. Mmmm darkness.

[tastade]

Originally Posted by Den

...but she's black on black. Mmmm darkness.

Mmmm, water spots....

Sorry, black is nice, but I hate keeping it clean

You have to watch carfax reports, they are usually fine, but sometimes their information is wrong. I know my car showed a "potential" odometer rollback, but after I carefully examined the data it was clearly an inaccurate date that was reported by one of the DMVs that made it look like a Rollback occurred. One of the reports was filed late and made it appear that the odometer reduced mileage, and unless they drove the vehicle 20k miles in a couple months the reports had flip-flopped dates. By calculating how many miles the previous owner had driven each year I could clearly see that the odometer hadn't been messed with. CarFax guarantees their information to be correct as reported. They don't guarantee that the information is reported to them correctly.

Also, if a person has owned the car for a short period of time (like less than 1 year) be aware that there is likely missing reports that haven't been filed yet, it takes those places a long time to do so sometimes. So the car might have been sold multiple times in that time frame or it might have been damaged, etc., but not reported yet.

CarFax is a useful tool when buying a car, but it should not be a catch all. The final decision should be made solely on the condition of the vehicle.

My 95 has 18 records, for the record.

[vapb400]

Owners 1-2 (it grouped them), 1 owned it for 10 years, 2 owned it for 2 months

it failed emissions in sterling va @ 124,969 (right down the road for me) only to pass again @124,994, passed again @157,552

Owner 3 5/2/06 - 6/30/06
Owner 4 9/14/06 - present

The fact athat it has high mileage and has switched owners 3 times in the past year is pretty troublesome if i must say so but it holds the carfax buyback guarantee. No accidents
I live in Herndon (right down the road to where this car seems to be) so if you need anything let me know.

Mine is black on black too http://www.318ti.org/forum/showthread.php?t=12342

Good luck, My carfax expires tonight actually

[Den]

Thanks, Chris!

I bought the car yesterday, but it's still nice to know that the carfax is basically clean. I called a dealer and asked them to run the VIN to see what the car came equipped with. Sport package got me to go see the car. Okay not a Club Sport and no fancy air dam like a 96+ sport package, but sport seats, M-tech suspension, and LSD does it for me. Woohoo!

170k high? Nah. My other one, Ms. Tyra(exactly the same color + options, BTW), has 238k. Woohoo! (She might be for sale soon. . .)


Den