Carfax to Charge a $1.50 per report to New Orleans Consumers During Industry Conference

--From Jan. 29 to Feb. 1, 2005, the city of New Orleans will play host to the largest gathering of auto dealers and industry experts in history. More than 20,000 auto retailers, manufacturers, consumer advocates and suppliers will gather in the Crescent City for the 88th annual National Automobile Dealers Association Convention and Exposition.

Carfax, the leading provider of vehicle history information, is making their entire database available to New Orleans consumers during the NADA conference. For the duration of the conference, consumers can check their vehicle's history in the Carfax database for $1.50 per report; Carfax Reports normally cost around $20. Consumers are encouraged to check for any DMV-reported incidents (salvage, flood, fire, etc.), check for potential odometer rollbacks, check the safety and reliability of any car they're considering buying and access any of the service and repair records on their vehicles.

While the industry has made great strides over the past few years to reduce the level of fraud associated with buying a car, Carfax is taking this opportunity to raise awareness of some key areas where much work remains to be done. For example:

-- Airbag Fraud: One out of every 25 previously deployed airbags are replaced with either dummy or non-working airbag units. This costs insurance companies and consumers an average of $50 million a year. And puts the lives of thousands of people at risk.

-- Odometer Rollbacks: Despite efforts to reduce the incidence of odometer fraud, it still costs used car buyers millions of dollars a year. Louisiana consumers are losing approximately $20 million a year to this type of rip-off alone.

-- VIN Cloning: One of the fastest growing types of fraud in the United States. Approximately 15% of the cars stolen in New Orleans each year have their vehicle identification numbers switched to conceal their identity. False VINs thwart consumer's attempts to find out the true history of the car their purchasing.