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Search CarBuyingTips.com Buying New Cars How To Buy New Cars Buy Cars Online First Time Car Buying Tips Hybrid Car Buying Tips Extended Auto Warranty Tips Canadian Car Buying Tips Top 10 Car Dealer Scams Military Personel Car Buying Our Reader's New Car Deals Auto Finance Auto Loans, Tips & Scams Auto Refinance Tips & Scams Bad Credit Auto Loan Tips Used Car Loan Tips Get Your Credit Report Online Car Insurance Buying Tips Used Cars Vehicle History Reports How To Buy Used Cars Selling Your Used Car Used Car Classifieds Auto Auction Buying Tips Auto Leasing New Car Leasing Tips ALG Residual Values Car Leasing Software Reviews Government Sites Attorney General Sites DMV Sites - All 50 States Drivers License Sites Take A Break Rate Your Dealer Experience Free Spreadsheet Downloads Humor: Alternate Car Names RV Buying Tips & Scams How To Jump Start A Car LoserCars.com Crash Of The Month Gallery Furniture Buying Tips	AutoCheck Vehicle History Reports & VIN Numbers Explained AutoCheck Vehicle History Reports: How to avoid thousands in losses when buying a used car Experian AutoCheck Vehicle History Reports can show if a used car has been stolen, falsified VIN, flooded, totaled, accidents, lemon or recalled How to use your AutoCheck Vehicle History Reports to negotiate a lower used car price All about VIN#s, VIN Search, VIN Decoders & common myths about VIN decoders NADA estimates that Hurricane Katrina alone damaged as many as 400,000 cars! If you are buying a used car, you absolutely must get an AutoCheck Vehicle History Report on the Vehicle Identification Number(VIN) AND have a mechanic inspect the car on a lift. If you do not do both of these, do not buy that used car! You have been warned. The VIN decoder keeps sellers honest too. You are about to purchase a used car for thousands of dollars, don't get stuck with a lemon because you wanted to save a couple of bucks on a Used Car History Report. It's more important now than ever before to be get a vehicle history report when buying a used car. With the economic downturn, it seems like every day we are hearing about a new scam somebody is running to try and make some quick cash. Never heard of AutoCheck? AutoCheck is a premium vehicle history report product from Experian Automotive. Experian Automotive is a business unit of Experian Group Ltd., a company with annual sales in excess of $3.8 billion (you probably know them best as the credit report people). Experian Automotive is able to use all of Experian's data collection expertise to give customers a comprehensive vehicle history report including the exclusive Autocheck Score (its like a credit score for your car). AutoCheck vs. CARFAX ® - Why we recommend AutoCheck. Single Vehicle History Report price: AutoCheck $14.99 vs. CARFAX ® $29.99 Unlimited Vehicle History Reports price: AutoCheck $24.99 vs. CARFAX ® $39.99 Unlimited Vehicle History Reports period: AutoCheck 90 days (when purchased through CarBuyingTips.com) vs. CARFAX ® 30days All AutoCheck reports include the AutoCheck Score Also read our guide How To Buy a Used Car And Avoid Scams. It's the best used car buying advice, with our used car bill of sale form, reviews of online used car classifieds, how to buy a used car from dealers or private sellers, negotiating with tough sellers, scams to avoid and a list of questions for you to print out to ask the seller. Always run an AutoCheck History Report on the VIN# before you buy & avoid scams. Is the odometer rolled back? Find out now, not later. Do a VIN Search Before you buy, any car is a Potential Lemon There are over 2 million wrecks a year, even certified used cars can have a bad past, whether it's a Mercedes, Lexus, Honda or Toyota. Without an AutoCheck used car history report, your chances of buying a wreck are high. It happens every day to people who email me, learn from their mistakes, don't let it happen to you. What an Experian AutoCheck Vehicle History Report gives you AutoCheck Vehicle History Reports search over 550 million vehicles with information from state DMV's, auto auctions, manufacturers, car dealers, police reported accidents and repair shops. An AutoCheck Vehicle History Report on a used car VIN Number is your tool for preventing you from getting ripped off on a used car. A car history report reveals more about that used car than the seller is willing to tell you. What a AutoCheck Vehicle History Report tells you: Number of previous owners, when it was sold, what states it was sold in. Awesome! Police accident reports if available for your VIN Number Major accident data, including total loss, rebuilt wrecks, salvage titles & airbag deployment Odometer rollback check, truth in mileage consistency check VIN Number Decoder shows year, model, engine, place of manufacture & standard equipment Check if the car has been turned in under a lemon law If the car was flooded, totaled by insurance, has a salvage title or sold at an auction Open recalls on your car, remaining coverage on the vehicle's warranty Indication if vehicle has been certified pre-owned, leased, car rental, fleet or government vehicle Date when dealer took delivery. Use this to haggle a lower price, it's sitting on the lot for months. AutoCheck Reports feature the AutoCheck Score. The AutoCheck Score allows you to easily compare vehicle histories. In addition to the AutoCheck Score for the specific vehicle you have searched, all AutoCheck Reports contain the AutoCheck Score Range. This range will show you where similar vehicles score so that you'll instantly know if the vehicle you are researching is "in range". CarBuyingTips.com Exclusive CarBuyingTips.com readers who purchase an AutoCheck Unlimited Vehicle History Report or AutoCheck Unlimited Vehicle History Report with TitleGuard before the end of will get 90 days to use the unlimited package instead of the normal 60 days. Buy now and take advantage of this special offer.

Dealers sometimes show you a AutoCheck Vehicle History Report from before they bought or traded the vehicle. Always run the AutoCheck Vehicle History Report during negotiations to see when the dealer bought that car. The VIN Decoder feature verifies your car is what the dealer claims it is.

Thousands of cars were damaged each year by natural and man made disasters. These cars are salvaged, rebuilt, sold at auction and have their titles cleaned. One way to catch these cars is by running an Experian AutoCheck 60 Day Unlimited Vehicle History Report on every used car VIN number before you buy. The AutoCheck 60 Day Unlimited Vehicle History Report package is the best option if you are still in shopping mode and have not yet decided on a specific vehicle. All states are vulnerable to the scams that arise out of mass vehicle ruins.

Recent major vehicle disasters that might show up in a car title history:

• Hurricanes Gustav and Ike - Summer 2008
• California Wildfires - 2007, 2008... (doesn't it seem like they're always on fire?)
• Midwest Flooding - Winter/Spring/Summer 2008
• Hurricanes Katrina, Rita & Wilma - 2005
• Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan & Jeanne - 2004

Canadian visitors: Looking at a used vehicle in Canada? Click here to visit our Canadian car buying tips page.

There's no VIN Decoder for used cars made before 1981
Not even AutoCheck can get you a car history report for cars before 1981, because the VIN did not become a standard until then, and every car manufacturer had their own format, so you're out of luck. There is no VIN decoder for this. But for late models years, the VIN decoder section of a AutoCheck report can help you tell if the seller is lying about the model, for example, calling it an EX, when the VIN decoder shows it to be an LX.

Some car accidents won't appear in an AutoCheck Vehicle history report
Some municipalities don't supply accident report data, and some accidents below $1000 are not reported. Nothing is fool proof. That's why I stress so much that you still need a mechanic look at the car on a lift to find accident damage not reported by the car history report. Vehicle history reports are only as accurate as the data from their sources.

Get Yourself An Extended Warranty For That used Car
The best advice on this page is to get an extended warranty whenever you buy a used car. We'll review car warranty companies like Warranty Direct. Be sure to read our chapter on Extended Warranty Scams & Tips. It's a must.

Odometer Rollback Myths
Many people wrongly think digital odometers can't be rolled back. With digital odometers, the current mileage reading is stored in a flash chip or an EEPROM. Anyone can remove the chip and reprogram it with lower mileage, so you must perform a AutoCheck Vehicle History Report on the VIN Number to know for sure. When a car is inspected the mileage is recorded, and when the title changes hands or it is traded in at car dealers, or turned in after a lease. As you look down a AutoCheck Vehicle History Report the recorded mileage increases each year. If an AutoCheck mileage event shows less mileage than the last event, you know you got odometer fraud. If a seller lies about the odometer, he may lie about the engine too, so the VIN decoder in the report will weed that out.

AutoCheck can also alert you to potential Airbag Fraud
In some cases, AutoCheck can tell you if the airbag was deployed in an accident, but only if it is checked off in the accident report. Airbag fraud is a huge and profitable scam. When cars are wrecked, insurance companies pay for damages including airbag replacement. But unscrupulous repair shops keep the money without replacing the $800 airbag, stuffing the space with everything from crushed beer cans to peanut bags. Many companies sell fake airbag covers so that you falsely think you have an airbag. Could you be driving around in a used car with no airbag, even though you think there is one there? You can't see through the airbag cover. That's why you need to know if the car was wrecked. If the car had previous accidents on its AutoCheck car history report, you should be suspicious and have a mechanic verify that airbags are properly installed.

Run An AutoCheck Vehicle History Report Before You Buy That Used Car
Think of an AutoCheck Vehicle History Report as a credit report for a car. You MUST run this report if you buy a used car so you don't get scammed. It happens to the best of cars too, Lexus and Mercedes.

• Extended Warranty companies will not cover a salvaged car with a rebuilt title
• Manufacturer's warranty is voided on a rebuilt or salvaged title
• Banks will not finance a salvaged car with a rebuilt title

You would hate to buy a used car without an AutoCheck Report, spend hundreds on your extended warranty, then when you need to file a claim, the warranty company finds out your used car was salvaged and voids the warranty.

VIN Numbers and where to find them
Many visitors tell me they ran an AutoCheck vehicle history report and found the used car they almost bought was a rebuilt wreck. You can find the VIN# on the a plate on the dashboard by looking through the windshield. Some cars also have the 17 digit VIN# printed on stickers on the drivers side door, trunk, other doors. Then you can run a AutoCheck Vehicle History Report to see if it has a rebuilt title.

You need to do more than run an AutoCheck Free VIN Check and Record Summary!
Don't just run an AutoCheck Free VIN check and think your job is done. That's just a teaser showing you how many records exist for that car, so run the full AutoCheck Vehicle History Report. Experian AutoCheck also has an excellent buyback guarantee. If for some reason a problem title is later found on a vehicle that shows a "Clean Title" in their system, Experian AutoCheck will buy back the vehicle from you. The AutoCheck 60 day Unlimited Vehicle History Report gives you the ability to check the history of every used car you are looking at.

Maximize your AutoCheck Vehicle History Reports. Get the 60 day unlimited plan!
If you are still is car shopping mode and have not yet found the used car for you, the AutoCheck 60 day Unlimited Vehicle History Report gives you the ability to check all the cars you want for 60 days. It gives you the chance to check the vehicle history of every used car you are shopping for. Think you don't have a VIN number to check yet? Yes you do, run the VIN number on your own car first. It's instantaneous, then run your parents' car VIN Number to get a feel for reading the reports. Get the VIN Numbers off every car you look at and it's an all you can eat 60 day AutoCheck Vehicle History Report buffet. You'll look at 10 used cars before you buy, and car ads on Autotrader, so run the VINs that are posted.

Use your vehicle history report to haggle a lower used car price

• One nice feature of the AutoCheck Vehicle History Report that several of our visitors have made clever use of is the delivery history of the car. Some people get the car history report to determine when the dealer took delivery of the used car coming off a lease. You might find the car was sitting on the lot for 6 months. You can use this powerful ammunition to knock down the price of the car. If it's been on their lot for 6 months, no one wants it, name your price. Many of our visitors have reported excellent success with this strategy.
  
  
• The AutoCheck Vehicle History Report lists the in service date of the car and thus how much warranty is left.
  
  
• Most people love that the AutoCheck Vehicle History Report shows the states a car was registered in, and when it was bought. This is useful data, because a 2003 car could have been bought in 2002, so it's really older than the other 2003 models you are looking at.
  
  
• My friend's vehicle history report for his used Lexus RX300 he just bought has a VIN decode showing the car was 4 wheel drive. The dealer did not know it because you cannot tell from the outside, and they only charged him for the standard 2WD, so he made out quite well.
  
  
• If the car went through an auction, the AutoCheck Vehicle History Report vehicle history report will show it. This is a great way for you to catch insurance companies who skirt the law. They resell a totaled car through a salvage auction, evading your state's minimum threshold of damage disclosure laws on the title. They are only required to brand the title if the damage exceeds a percentage of the value of the car. If they can get enough for the car at an auction, they won't have to brand the title even though the car should be totaled. Then you lose out. In 2006 AutoCheck announced the inclusion of new, exclusive data sources providing nationwide coverage of police accident report sourced information along with real frame damage data. These new data sources provide AutoCheck with specific police-reported accident information gathered from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as frame damage events to create a more complete view of a vehicle's title history.

Where can you get a VIN decoder?
Many people ask where they can get a VIN decoder. The VIN decoder is very expensive, and some car fan pages have a VIN decoder for a VIN only on one particular car. But one additional benefit of the AutoCheck Vehicle History Report is their vin search includes a VIN decoder on the car including the model, options, year, engine size & type, drive train info, country of manufacture, EPA gas mileage, etc. This gives you the car title facts that you'll need and that car's past history prior to making that car title transfer.

Buying a used car in California? You better run an AutoCheck Vehicle History Report
An AutoCheck Vehicle History Report is a great tool for your arsenal. This is a must if you live California. It informs you if the car has failed emissions in California, and if it eventually passed again. You should not worry if the car eventually passed inspection, but if it is currently under a Gross Polluter violation and it has not been repaired, then you should avoid the car. California has probably the toughest emissions laws in the US. If a car has failed emissions, it could cost you, the poor unsuspecting consumer, hundreds of dollars or more to get the car to pass the pollution test. That's a money trap you can do without.

Every VIN# Tells A Story
The 17 digit car VIN# (Vehicle Identification Number) is on all cars, usually found in the dashboard as a metal strip with numbers that you can't get at. In the 70's and 80's car thieves would either alter the numbers, file them down, remove the tag altogether, or replace it with a VIN tag from another stolen car. You should also be able to find the VIN# inside the driver side door on a factory sticker, sometimes the passenger door, your trunk may have a sticker, the hood usually has one, and sometimes the engine and other major parts have one, or it's engraved. My Lexus SC300 has stickers on most of the major panels. My 1988 Trans AM GTA also had a sticker inside the center console with other part markings on major vehicle parts to aid in theft recovery. The car manufacturers usually place VIN stickers on the major accident parts like doors, engines, and quarter panels. These are the parts that are also broken down from a car when it's stolen. If they show up in another car, you know something is wrong. Either the car was stolen, a victim of grand theft auto, or previously junked and rebuilt. Walk around the car, checking all the doors and panels for the VIN# and making sure that ALL of them match. If you find multiple VINs, run an AutoCheck Vehicle History Report on all of them.

Check all the doors and panels for the VIN#, making sure that ALL of them match. If even one of them is a mismatch, something is wrong. If the seller denied that the car was in a wreck, it's time to leave, for you KNOW they are lying now. Ask them why the VIN#'s don't match and watch them squirm. This is the best way to protect yourself and it only takes you a minute.

The DMV processes and approves 350 "rebuilt" or "laundered" titles every month.
On 7/18/99 The Miami Herald published a report called "Rebuilt Wrecks: Buying Trouble" by Larry Lebowitz. Detailing scams that several used car buyers ran into, most of which have been listed here for years. The Miami Herald article backs up what we have been stating here on CarBuyingTips.com when we started in 1997. If these poor people had only stopped by here before they went to buy, they would have been much better off. The article reported that the DMV processes and approves 350 "rebuilt" or "laundered" titles every month. That means chances are good that you can get a car that was wrecked or stolen, and had the title "branded" as totaled, but it was laundered back to "used car" status by making a few minor repairs in a highly unsupervised and loosely regulated industry. Can you guarantee your safety in a wreck? How do you know if the airbag still works, or the ABS? There is no safety data on rebuilt cars, and you should not risk the lives of your kids on a rebuilt car.

Evidence of a previous accident or rebuilt cars
Check the tires and windows carefully for evidence of paint over spray. Many sellers will put a cheap paint job on the car and lie about it being in a wreck. The cheaper the paint job, the sloppier the body shop gets. They get over spray all over the place, and that's your singing telegram that the car was in a wreck or rebuilt, most people don't just paint a car for the heck of it. Run the title search on the car and it will tell you if the title has been branded in any way.

The AutoCheck Free VIN Check is a way to get started, but it only tells you the number of records available on the vehicle in the Experian database. So be sure you do more than just run the AutoCheck Free VIN Check. This free check is not the complete AutoCheck Vehicle History Report.

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Jump to any chapter. I suggest you read each chapter in order.
Chapter 1 Get your credit report, how to get a car loan, scams, online car loans, first time car loans, budget & loan excel spreadsheets, credit repair.	Chapter 2 Reviews of internet discount car buying sites, new car prices, find dealer's invoice cost. Get a new car quote.	Chapter 3 What to bring to a dealership, what to say, how to act, what not to do, what to look for at the dealership, and a glossary of all dealer fees.	Chapter 4 How to read dealer invoices, finding dealer's cost, how much to offer the dealer, buyers offer spreadsheet, examples, trade-ins.
Chapter 5 Negotiating tips, dealer scams & tricks to watch out for, dealing with aggressive salespeople, choosing between rebates or low APR loans.	Chapter 6 Close the deal, avoid needless extras, scams in the business office, extended warranty scams, options, buying warranties online.	Chapter 7 Actual misleading dealer ads, and what to do when you've been ripped off, customer satisfaction surveys, how I bought my Lexus.
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