Accident reported on Carfax

[hemi steve]

In my search I'm finding a few cars that have a "minor" accident show up on the Carfax report but have a clean (non-branded) title. Any thoughts on how negative that is in the car's history and the impact on value?

Steve

[Camfab]

Honestly you have to ask yourself that question. It’s more important in my opinion for you to be happy with your purchase than what others may perceive in the future. I think you have to actually look at the car and make a judgement call. Some of those so called minor accidents can be masking a major event, and some may actually be a very minor cosmetic incident that was turned in as a claim. You never really know until you see it.

[Fatboy 18]

This is my personal opinion, I have no problem of accident damage reported but I would want to see clear pictures of the damage and the work done to rebuild the car to the correct standard (or higher standard than original). If the seller can provide that, then fine.

If it's all a shady cover up then I would walk away and find another car. But you also have to ask yourself do you need to up your budget?

Or are you happy that the car falls into your budget and with minimal work you can go through the car to get it A1, taking pics along the way so that when you decide to sell it on you can get the best price?

The Carfax history will always be there , but if you can prove the work was done to the correct standard it will not be an issue.

[JPL]

When I bought my Ferrari, it had an 10 year old accident reported on it's carfax, I had a complete PPI done, that found nothing wrong with the car. The dealer hat I got it from had no information about it. When I researched it further, turned out it was a hit and run where the car's rear got clipped while it was parked by a car that took a wide turn, really not a big deal and I didn't have a problem with it. But when it came time to sell it, priced with that in mind, I got a lot blow back about it, dealers didn't want to take the risk, purists didn't want stories, others in the market really low balled it. I even had pics taken of the area when the bumper was taken off during a clutch change, (I know, lol), and it was perfect, but it still it had a story, a history, a carfax, an accident. The guy who bought it was a car guy like me, realized it was priced fair, looked at the PPI, pics, and went through it complacently himself. He ended up with a good car and I was happy. So I think if your ok with it and it meets your criteria, and your well informed about the issue, that's all that matters, just keep in mind if you are planning on selling it in the future, your market will be smaller and your selling price will probably be less than a non carfax issue car.......or not, lol cars are funny like that, good luck!

[Racngrn]

Couldn't agree more with JPL. It does filter down the list of potential buyers, no doubt, but there are still many of us that are willing to hear about a story and realize that things happen. I owned an 87 Vette years back that was a 50k mile car and immaculate Better yet, everything worked including the crazy electronic dash the C4 vettes had. Beautiful example. When I went to sell it ( this was in the early years of CarFax), it came up showing 150K miles. Traced back to learn that the state of Conn had made an error in titling the car and added a 1 at the first sale from new. Buyers wouldn't accept that, but eventually a guy showed up who could easily see that this was a very nice, legit car with legit miles. He wasn't afraid to get a car he really wanted. Not a Ferrari , of course, but underscores the fact that honest Car Guys are out there if you are patient.
For me as it relates to a Viper with damage, I have read enough threads to realize that these are tough cars to repair right and the gaps and alignment are extremely tricky. Paying close attention that that seems to be a priority. Good luck