[Longs]

I've been looking for used cars for my son and I've seen that some of the dealers include a CarFax with the car and other dealers make reference to AutoCheck but don't provide a report.

What's the difference between CarFax and AutoCheck? Does anyone have opinions that one is better, more reliable, or more detailed than the other? AutoCheck seems to be more expensive in general, plus AAA offers a 20% discount on CarFax.

[carbking]

I do not know the answer to your questions, however will offer a possible third method; the one I use on late model used vehicles:

Find a local NEW car dealer that has been locally in business just a little less time than when Noah landed the Ark.

Find a salesperson at the dealership that is north of 50 years of age, and been with this dealership a long time.

Tell the salesperson what type (make, model, preferred options, color, etc.) for which you are interested, and ask for one that was sold new at that dealership, and has been serviced by the dealership, and traded back to the dealership. Lastly, ask if possible to speak to the original owner.

Personally, I find the above far superior to a computer generated report that may/may not have the complete history of the vehicle.

Jon.

[61-63]

I don't know anything about AutoCheck but I found my current truck thru CarFax Used Car listings and from this point on anything used that I buy will be bought that way;

http://www.carfax.com/cars-for-sale?...IPCA&gclsrc=ds

I just kept widening my search until I found what I was looking for, at a price I could live with, mileage within the range I wanted it to have, and a service and accident history I liked. There was more to it than this but the bottom line is that I ended up with with a very clean 1/2 year old Duramax with 92k miles and 4 1/2 years of warranty left at a below book price, which I never would have found talking to local sales people. This truck was 275 miles away.

The CarFax search engine does not show all of what you are looking for of course; only the vehicles that are available from dealers who use their service. Everything in their system relating to the truck I bought was correct but I cannot say that will always be the case because I do not know that it would be.

[400 4spd.]

I can't speak of AutoCheck, but using CarFax recently saved me from making a buy on a vehicle with a huge mileage discrepancy. Being out of state, I had a relative look it over and he confirmed the advertised condition. CarFax then confirmed that the advertised mileage was off by 40K from the service and resale records.
Although heavily optioned, the truck was not originally equipped with a a reversing odometer. After bringing this to the seller's attention, his communication skills suffered greatly and the negotiations ended.
Months later I used CarFax and scored a nice deal.