Carfax

Nothing interested (neither good or bad) on it whatsoever. Aside from tires and maybe brakes I doubt it would have needed maintenance. The important thing is no accidents and how it looks in person...and of course the price.

 

Take any Carfax with a big grain of salt!

I spent an hour driving to/from Fayetteville AR to test drive a Prius (white 2013 VIN JTDKN3DU7D5691139) because Carfax says no accidents reported, but this one has obviously been rear ended.

1. Nuggets of broken tempered glass in the trunk crevices.
2. The rear bumper cover is loose, leaving uneven gaps.
3. Body filler in the gap between the hatch and roof, painted over without sanding.
4. There are two big holes visible when you open the back door. Whoever repaired this car, thanks for making it so easy to spot!

 

Sorry about the long drive to see a car in a condition that you weren't expecting- I've been in that position many times.

As for carfax, the key word is "reported". Based on your observations, I'd say that the owner fixed the damage by himself. In that case, nothing would have been reported to carfax.

With the recent hurricanes damaging a lot of cars, some of the cars will not have the proper insurance coverage to fix up their cars. Buyers need to be careful about those cars, too. First, they probably won't be properly repaired. Secondly, the flood damage probably won't be reported to carfax.

 

You can avoid some of flood risk by rejecting any car with Carfax reporting Florida and Texas registration. It is not foolproof but will take out many suspect vehicles, guilty or not.

 

My good ol 98 Camry got hit by a USPS vehicle, I reported to the DMV and it still doesn't show up on the carfax. It's been 9 months since the wreck no records of it yet. I bought my prius from carmax, they did the oil change but it doesn't show up on carfax either but the all of the previous owner's maintenance shows on carfax. Gotta love carfax.

 

Sorry to to hear about the journey. Took me 4 months to find the prius I wanted. Same thing happened here, photos were great, carfax checked out fine but in person, the car was wrecked in certain areas that photos didn't taken. One Saturday, I spent 3 hours driving to hilly San Jose, and 3 hours back home in the summer heat came back w/o a car because they didn't disclose enough info about the car on phone. I know their tactics to get people to show up at their lot. I was pissed as hell.