Minor accident NOT appearing on CarFax

[flinter]

Hi,

About 6 weeks ago, I was involved in a very minor fender bender accident in a mall parking lot. I was parked and NOT in my car and a car backed into my bumper and damaged it. The police were called and did accident report. I just got the CarFax this morning and the accident is not on it. Do minor accidents like this ever even appear on the report, or will
it eventually appear?

 

[Quattro Pete]

Was insurance involved?

My guess is it'll eventually appear. It just takes time.

 

[hattaresguy]

Good for you.

 

[stephen9666]

Not everything appears on Carfax. Only what is reported to Carfax or collected by them appears on it.

 

[Nick1994]

Not a lot gets reported on Carfax. My dad has worked for large body shop chains and dealerships and none of them report anything to Carfax.

 

[Donald]

I think there is kind of a clearing house that insurance companies run among themselves to make sure you do not get paid twice for same accident, etc. I think that clearing house is the place that sells the info to Carfax. But not everything gets reported.

I have "accident forgiveness" listed on my policy from Geico. I wonder if that means it will not get reported to Carfax. Somehow I doubt it.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

Do you have to call police for a small fender bender with no injuries?
Did the other party have comprehensive insurance?

 

[zvm77us]

Had same thing happen a few years back but no police report but did have an insurance claim pay the damage, no mark ever on the carfax

 

[KCJeep]

Originally Posted By: stephen9666
Not everything appears on Carfax. Only what is reported to Carfax or collected by them appears on it.


This. Carfax is a tool but it is far from perfect. A police report regarding an accident will most likely show up on Carfax but it may take 6 months or so.

 

[demarpaint]

I had a van legally parked and totaled. I was paid for it, and bought it back from the insurance company. Two years later I sold it, I ran a CarFax and it came back clean. I wouldn't put too much faith in it.

 

[racer12306]

Originally Posted By: KCJeep
Originally Posted By: stephen9666
Not everything appears on Carfax. Only what is reported to Carfax or collected by them appears on it.


This. Carfax is a tool but it is far from perfect. A police report regarding an accident will most likely show up on Carfax but it may take 6 months or so.



Not even then. Last I knew, my wife's former totaled Beetle still shows as ok to buy on Carfax. This happened probably 8 years ago.

 

[bradepb]

The only thing I like carfax for is to find out about previous registration and track mileage. I would not count on accident info being there.

 

[Charlie1935]

Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
Do you have to call police for a small fender bender with no injuries?
Did the other party have comprehensive insurance?

This for the great state of Illinois.
The Law: The legal reporting threshold for traffic crashes involving only property damage is
$1,500 when all drivers are insured. However, if any driver does not have insurance,
the threshold remains $500. In both cases, the investigating enforcement agency must
complete and forward a written report to IDOT, on a form provided/approved by IDOT, within
10 days of the crash investigation. Private property crashes are not excluded from this
requirement. [625 ILCS 5/11-406 and 408]

 

[Andrew1972]

Data flow is not instant/real time to car fax. It is an aggregator of data feeds to produce a "report" unique to a vin. 6 weeks is not long enough to say it will never appear.

Some data sources are near real time while the balance are likes fed manually on a monthly or even quarterly basis. The web interface implies modern but reality is the service is lipstick on a pig.

 

[KitaCam]

...and the use of right/left terms on CF rather than driver side/passenger side leads to instances of mistakes in identifying the correct side of a repair...as I found out after buying Kitacam....

 

[SatinSilver]

Click here for more information:

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubb...r_a#Post3767608

And:

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubb...o_b#Post3756113

 

[ARCOgraphite]

Originally Posted By: Charlie1935
Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
Do you have to call police for a small fender bender with no injuries?
Did the other party have comprehensive insurance?

This for the great state of Illinois.
The Law: The legal reporting threshold for traffic crashes involving only property damage is
$1,500 when all drivers are insured. However, if any driver does not have insurance,
the threshold remains $500. In both cases, the investigating enforcement agency must
complete and forward a written report to IDOT, on a form provided/approved by IDOT, within
10 days of the crash investigation. Private property crashes are not excluded from this
requirement. [625 ILCS 5/11-406 and 408]
I recall back in the day, Id fill out the form at the police station and they would submit it and Id send a copy to Allstate.

 

[TFB1]

Originally Posted By: Nick1994
Not a lot gets reported on Carfax. My dad has worked for large body shop chains and dealerships and none of them report anything to Carfax.

I can believe that... Know of a couple instances that were repaired by dealer but Car Fax is clean...