Understand Carfax

Futbalfantic

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 5, 2006
Location
Charlotte
I am looking to buy a used car and plan on traveling 7 hours starting at 2 am to take a look at it. My problem is the dealer lists the mileage on it as 64k (2006 vw touareg) and the Carfax has a highest reading of 160k. But what doesnt make since to me is there is a 3k jump in 15 days then a 25k jump in 6 mos. this just seems like huge jumps.

Thoughts?
 
I'd take Carfax's word over the dealer's any day of the week and twice on Sundays. The 3k jump may be explained by the title changing hands or an entry error. The fact that they are saying it's got 60k miles and carfax says 160k, that's either someone trying to misrepresent it or it could be an honest mistake, but either way, that car has 160,000 miles for sure.
 
I've put on 6k in 2 weeks going out west, so 3k is believable...that's a good road trip...only 215 miles a day. 25k over 180 days...if it were somebody commuting...that would be maybe 90 miles each way on working days (figured 22 days per month). That would be hard-core commuting (but I know several people around here currently doing that).

64k over 6 years is 10k per year -- low. 160k over 6 years is about 25k per year (about normal for me at least). The difference in wear and tear between 64k and 160k should be pretty evident.
 
ManglerYJ said:
I'd take Carfax's word over the dealer's any day of the week and twice on Sundays. The 3k jump may be explained by the title changing hands or an entry error. The fact that they are saying it's got 60k miles and carfax says 160k, that's either someone trying to misrepresent it or it could be an honest mistake, but either way, that car has 160,000 miles for sure.
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Not saying that car dealers are always the most honest people, but putting any faith into a carfax report is foolish too. They are fairly worthless.
 
Doesn't seem like this vehicle is worth driving 7 hours for. I can't imagine how a 4 door SUV is special enough to do that anyways, let alone one that has potential issues like this. Don't waste your time and step away.
 
It pretty clearly has more like 180k miles on it. Maybe the computer or dash was replaced...being that it's a vw, likely all of the electronics have taken a shit at least once. It would be easy to tell in person between a 60k and 170k car, but I would be pissed after a 7 hr drive.
 
It'd be a steal for $12800, but at $20k, its not such a great deal. I'd love to have a V10 TDI Touareg as well, but they are just too expensive. But it does look to be in really great shape for the mileage.
 
I bet they changed the computer after the reports of the electrical issues.
 
kaiser715 said:
I've put on 6k in 2 weeks going out west, so 3k is believable...
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Ya, lets see July 19 my BIL left NC, came up here, we drove to Newfoundland and back, he returned Aug 3rd w/ 4500 new miles on his FJC ;-):driver:
 
Cory said:
who drives 7 hours to buy a car
A car thats not even close to rare
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I did. I drove to Jacksonville, FL to buy my TDI Passat, but I saved $7000 over what people around here were asking, so I didn't mind.

VW TDI's are not exactly rare, but are definitely hard to find at a good price. V10 TDI Touareg's are practically rare, autotrader search only shows 4 withing a 500 mile radius.
 
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