Should I Get A Carfax Report Or An Autocheck Report?

Getting a used vehicle can be incredibly scary. Carfax and Autocheck both aim to make that used-car purchasing process easier. Most often anymore, purchasing a used auto does involve a vehicle history report. Should you trust Carfax or Autocheck to discover out the history of your potential vehicle?

What should a vehicle history report contain

A full vehicle history report should contain a few major elements. Lemon check, a report that lets you know if a car has major mechanical troubles, is very essential. A complete registration and title history for the car is also important, because large gaps should raise questions. Any odometer rollbacks, accidents, or salvages on the title should also be a part of the report.

Reasons why Carfax my be a better option

Carfax reports have been available since about 1984. A Carfax report comes in two flavors – a free report that tells you the basics of vehicle history, and a full, paid report. Carfax reports are generally provided for cars on used-car lots or for pre-owned vehicles. Carfax is well respected as a vehicle history provider, and has partnerships with everybody from the National Institute for Highway Safety to J.D. Power Associates.

How Autocheck differs from Carfax

Autocheck is a service that opened fairly recently – a start-up owned and funded by credit reporting agency Experian. A 2009 market study found that Autocheck reports tend to report about twice the number of accidents as Carfax reports. Reports from Autocheck generally include – and are used by – vehicle auction services. The free Autocheck report provides about the same data as the free Carfax report.

Which to choose – Autocheck or Carfax?

Carfax and Autocheck are both well-respected providers of used car history reports. If you aren’t certain which type of car report you should get, you should use the free reports from both Carfax and Autocheck. If your used-car dealer provides a free full report from either one of these providers, that is the ideal situation. If you are paying for your own vehicle history report, then either one is a reliable option.