Carfax Kicks Sand In The Face Of Experian

Editors Note: A few days back I received an e-mail from Tyrone Walker an employee of Carfax who was eager to compare the results I received from Experian with those of their chief competitor. He asked if I would give him the VIN number of the RX7 in question so he could compare the Carfax Report with the report from Experian, which I did.

So read about my experience with Experian and then look at the Carfax report… (Way to go Carfax ...Boo on you Experian)

July 2003

A few weeks back I was shopping to replace my beloved 1988 RX7 Convertible with another one because my baby just happened to catch on fire while I was in a restaurant, old and tired I guess.

I was having fun bidding for another on E-bay and bought a package of 10 vehicle history searches from Experian to give me peace of mind as to the real history of the cars I was considering (although being associated with The Auto Channel negates any real chance to find pax).

One of the cars I was bidding on was a 1988 RX7 with an apparently honest description of the car that included the fact that it had a Salvage Title. I thought it would be a good idea to check if there was anything else amiss in the cars long history, so I used one of my Experian searches to check it out

The Report came back and said the car had a Clear Title; they missed the fact that the car had a Salvage Title. Experian did not catch the real history and warn me that the car had a Salvage Title...so what the hell was I paying for? And if they screwed this up what else was incorrect?

To continue my investigation of the situation, I called upon the Kentucky MVB folks, who were cooperative and nice, to look up the title history of the car in question. Guess what, in about 5 seconds their computer showed that the car I was looking at did in fact have a Salvage Title just like the seller said it did.

Whew, how come in one minute I could confirm the truth, but big time, pay me money for incorrect info Experience couldn't get the facts? It seemed like a good question that deserved an answer. So I called upon my unpaid intern (nah, I really did it myself, but if the boys at the NYT could use interns to gather facts then it sounded good for us) to e-mail and then call Experience and ask them to explain why if I could find the salvage title why didn't they?

I was hoping to get an honest answer but after communicating with three Experian employees I realized that they were just tap dancing around the fact that apparently their service doesn't really work and is a sham and a waste of money.

Talk about a con job...millions of people pay to get the truth and when they don't they are told to read the Experian disclaimer...so read it first and don't waste your bucks or your trust, and definitely don't rely on the results you get from Experian to help you make an intelligent decision about the buyability of a car.

I have kept the email trail of this saga if anyone is interested just e-me bgordon@theautochannel.com.

In contrast here is the Carfax report I recieved today August 18, 2003:

Carfax Report: