What Does a Carfax Report Show?

A Carfax shows seven categories of data. Here's what's in each, and what's not.

Accidents and damage

Reported accidents from state DMVs, police, insurance claims, and body shops. Each entry has date, state, severity, and (where known) which parts of the car were affected and whether airbags deployed. Unreported fender benders don't show up.

Title brands

Salvage, rebuilt, flood, junk, non-repairable, lemon law buyback, taxi, rental, plus state-specific brands. Pulled from all 50 states. Catches title washing (a vehicle retitled in a different state to drop a brand).

Odometer

Every reported reading from registration, inspection, service, and sales. Flags rollback.

Service records

Dealer and chain visits that report to Carfax. Oil changes, inspections, repairs. Independent shops often don't report, so this is incomplete by design.

Ownership and use

Owner count, state of each ownership, use type. One of the most useful fields. A "one-owner" car that spent its life as a rental is not the same car as a one-owner garage-kept vehicle.

Recalls

Open NHTSA safety recalls specific to the VIN. Dealers fix these free.

What it does NOT show

• Mechanical condition. The Carfax isn't a lift inspection.
• Unreported accidents fixed privately
• Service from independent shops that don't report
• Very recent damage that hasn't hit the data pipeline
• Aftermarket modifications

All seven categories, $9.99. cheap Carfax report delivers in a minute or two.