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Originally Posted by paul34 Also, I think that only accidents that get reported end up on Carfax. If the person never reported it to the police or their insurance, I don't believe it would end up on the Carfax. |
Yes, but sometimes even reported accidents don't go to CarFax.
My parents were recently trying to sell their 03 Lexus ES300, which has been in FOUR (two major, two rear fender benders) accidents. That's FOUR police reports, FOUR times through insurance, FOUR trips to the autobody shop...and yet, when we went to dealers to get trade-in values they told us that CarFax (and Autocheck too) reported it was clean!
However, the Lexus also is missing the original stickers and those same seams are welded...I believe the CPO Lexus dealer called them "hung quarters"...and it means that the car was in a significant rear-end accident (or in your case side-rear). So, Devilsown, your car was almost definitely in a rear-end collision and repaired, whether CarFax showed it or not. Our autobody shop did an amazing job, and it sounds like the one that repaired your car probably did too, but if whoever you end up selling this to sees the lack of sticker or the hung quarter the resale value will drop a lot.
Carfax definitely won't buy back your car...quoting their site, "The CARFAX Buyback Guarantee protects you from unknowingly buying a used car with DMV-reported incidents (salvage, fire, flood damage, odometer problems or lemon history)." And IDK if you're registered yet, but you have to do that before buying the car to be eligable.