Carfax Reports are easy and essential for many when starting the process of estimating the vehicle's value or checking its history unless those reports contain costly mistakes.
Laurie Minarcik of Schaumburg experienced this when she tried to trade in her 2015 Toyota Sienna at the beginning of this year.
Minarcik said she was planning on waiting to sell it in the fall but decided to jump on the process now before the new car models were released and the price of used cars would drop again.
After going to her local dealership, she said she was shocked to hear that according to Carfax, her vehicle had been damaged last year.
Minarcik said that never happened.
“[The dealership employee] said, ’You have something on your Carfax Report that shows your airbags deployed and that will really reduce the trade-in value of your car,’” Minarcik said.
The estimate for her vehicle was $5,000 lower because of the report’s inaccuracy, leaving Minarcik frustrated and confused as she received the appraisal.
“Yeah, it was a lot,” Minarcik said. “It was not money that I wanted to leave on the table.”
According to the report, there was damage to the front and back of the vehicle and the airbags had deployed. Minarcik counters that claim as she said she was the only owner of the car and would know if her car was damaged that badly.
“I had one minor fender bender where I got rear-ended sitting at a stoplight back in 2021,” Minarcik said. “They replaced the bumper on the car, but nothing else happened."
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When Minarcik reached out to Carfax, the company said nothing was wrong with its report, and it stands.
Emails shared with NBC 5 Responds show Carfax wouldn’t tell Minarcik where the accident details came from. Carfax wouldn’t share that information with NBC 5, either. Not even the city where the alleged accident took place.
Carfax said their vehicle history reports are based on records from more than “139,000 data sources, including over 32 billion vehicle history records to date,” and that these sources can choose whether they will disclose their identity on a Carfax Report.
In Minacik’s case, Carfax explained to her and NBC 5 that the source of the damage information “did not authorize Carfax to disclose its identity.”
NBC 5 found Minarcik is not alone.
According to the Better Business Bureau, many customer complaints filed center around report inaccuracies.
Carfax has a low customer review rating – a 1.03 star out of five – but has an “A” BBB Rating & Accreditation grade because they respond to all customer complaints.
In a statement to NBC 5, a spokesperson for Carfax said the company “takes BBB complaints seriously, and takes the time to review and respond to every BBB complaint sent to Carfax for review.”
When NBC Chicago initially contacted Carfax about Minarcik’s case, the company stood by her report, stating it had “researched the vehicle’s history and verified that a record of damage with an airbag deployment was reported for the vehicle.”
A week after their initial response, the company told Minarcik that it had “research[ed] the vehicle's history with a third-party source,” and determined “the data at issue was reported to Carfax in error by one of its data sources.”
The spokesperson said Minarcik’s case shows the company’s research process works.
“We rely on our data sources for the accuracy and reliability of the data they report to Carfax,” a spokesperson for Carfax said in an email. “And we display all data records available to us because doing so is in the best interest of consumers. They help to inform consumers about potential problems with used vehicles and ultimately, this information helps keep safer cars on public roadways.”
With the corrected Carfax Report in hand, Minarcik traded in her 2015 Toyota Sienna for its full value, and is happily driving her new car.
When asked what consumers should do in a situation like hers, Minarcik put it bluntly.
“Don’t give up,” Minarcik said. “If you know you’re right, don’t give up.”
