--- In dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Bruce Benson" <delornut@xxxx> wrote: <SNIP> > I never did and tried Carfax to see what it said about my > car. Carfax couldn't find it. I think it was related more to not needing to > renew the registration annualy because of the collector plates. I belive > Carfax traces the car by title changes and registration renwals. If the car > sat for years there wouldn't be current records for Carfax to start on. <SNIP> CarFax will show annual renewals, smog inspections, applications for duplicate titles, AND any changes to the title. On my car for example, CarFax shows the times in the past when I failed my smog inspection, when I first put in for a new Nevada title, when I requested a duplicate title, due to changes, and my yearly registrations. BUT, you've also got to remember that CarFax is only as good as the information provided to them by the states. Using my car as an example again, CarFax only goes back to 1999, when 6585 was returned to the road. According to CarFax, nothing exists before that. However, I called the California DMV last Friday, and got a whole earful. Their database itself will only hold 10 years worth of information. And as it turns out, I am so far the 4th owner. So far, they were able to trace back that my car was at one point placed into someone's family trust, and then was owned by a business before that. And was on the road 10 years ago, but was placed into non-operational status shortly there after. Anything before that, and they can provide microfishce copies, from their state archives. Even better was back in 1999. I used to work as a bank courier/driver. After I left, one of the vehicles was totaled by another driver (it crashed, and rolled down an embankment). I ran the old VIN # that I had, and they never even listed the car as being wrecked. The registrations renewals just stopped for it. So the point here is, even though you have CarFax as a tool to help you in reviewing a car, you still cannot rely on it 100% to give you the real story behind a vehicle. -Robert vin 6585 "X" To address comments privately to the moderating team, please address: moderators@xxxxxxxxxxx For more info on the list, tech articles, cars for sale see www.dmcnews.com To search the archives or view files, log in at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnews Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnews/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: dmcnews-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/