Nothing beats paying a mechanic a hours labor to check the car over. Other than some information that the car had X miles at X date , there is little information that is really helpful. I tend not to like CF as some of the information can allow a clueless person to give a seller grief over nothing.

After I purchased my SL, I found the online ad where the previous owner of my SL tried to sell the car and offered free car fax. It listed 2 leases, that here were 7 owners* and miles at lic plate renewals. It also listed " Minor to Moderate rear impact", this is quite a range spanning the distance from a door ding to broken tail lights / trunk lid / bumper cover.

I had looked the car over pretty hard prior to purchase and saw no signs of any real body damage. A second look netted that the rear bumper cover probably was painted / might have been changed. There was a ever so slight tear in the plastic bumper backer that was only visible from under the car. None of the sheetmetal was bent at all. This damage would be consistent with backing into the garage a bit too far.

So, the car now carries a car fax brand of having moderate damage. While I don't plan on selling the car any time soon, a non car person armed with consumer reports / car fax and " The blue book says the car is worth XX " is going to make a big fuss that the car was totaled.

* I had looked at another super clean SL that had a maintenance book full of dealer stamps. CF listed 2 owners but the seller said they were the original owner. LIAR !! FRAUD !!! KBB says to deduct 23.65227% for each owner over original and a additional 54.432143% for mental anguish. As it turned out the car was bought on lease with Mercedes as the "owner" , then the original leasee bought the car at end of term.