I had a 1989 Jag XJS that I was selling with 33,000 original miles from my grandfather, original owner.

I was so upset when I ran a carfax, because, firstly, it said it had 4 owners!

This is not true, it simply had the names on the registration changed three times, for insurance, divorce, and other reasons.

And secondly, it showed a 50,000 mile odometer rollback. Some crappy smog shop in Sacramento reported it having 76,000 miles on it in 1998. The shop messed up.

My carfax report was tainted. And it is fairly hard to challenge these things.


And another story. I crashed my 190 about a year ago. An accident report was filed. Carfax still shows the vehicle as accident free. So in this case, carfax missed a real, serious event.

I dont trust carfax too much... but it can help guide you in the right direction.