Accident listed on a Carfax: How much of a hit to value?

10-20%
depends on what it is and what car tho.

 

You were probably pretty lucky that no one noticed a repainted panel. That being said, the difficulty in matching really depends on the colour.

As for cars with blemished history it depends on what your future intentions are. If you plan on hanging on to it for a while and kicking the snot out of it then I wouldn’t worry much about a shaky cosmetic history. You can probably get a good deal on that premise. However if your worried about possibly making a quick sale for fair market value in the foreseeable future, maybe lean towards something with a cleaner record.

Either way you can’t really go wrong with an F12 Good luck!


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I'm a franchised new car dealer and a bad car fax devalues vehicles much more than 10-20%. The main reason is that it becomes extremely difficult to resell.
Especially considering that the internet and many sites have priority listings for cars with clean car faxes. So any car with a bad car fax gets fewer looks online and potential customers are always skeptical in general when buying any pre-owned car.
They have to be listed well below retail price that similar vehicles with a clean carfax are offered at.
As a matter of fact many import dealers will not accept trades with bad carfaxes because they cannot be certified.
Keep in mind that you can appeal to your insurance company for what's called "diminished value" dollars for claims when you have a claim over a specitic dollar amount.
Any exotic with a bad carfax is a virtual death knell to value to a much greater extent than let' say a 4 door american sedan.

 

yes, this is mostly true.
but i can tell you first hand that one of my cars, with an 'accident' mention on its carfax, has still been bid at a price about 17% below what i consider to be a fair price for it. perhaps that is a one off.

your statement about it being a death knell is pretty damning.
too bad for those with an accidented car that they want to sell
but great news for those wanting to buy and keep - coz if you can get an f12 that had a minor fender bender for a massive discount, then that is a BIG win.

 

I agree on the not true about not being able to be certified. While looking at a used MB I noticed differences in paint on some panels and while talking to the sales person about it, he told me (I was surprised) that numerous panels and some damage repairs are acceptable and can still be a CPO ......at least on the Benz.

 

I would personally only buy a Carfax accident car if I had a pic of the accident and documentation of the repair.. then I might go for 10% off if insignificant enough and I was going to hold the car forever, but otherwise I'd pass on the car. When I was shopping for Cayenne's last Dec, so many had accidents on the Carfax. even for a cheap *** beater cayennes! I managed to find one without an accident history. I'd pass with too many other good cars on the market or a really good discount, like 20%.

 

My F12 will show up with minor damage, nothing structural only cosmetic and I will be selling it soon so I will see soon how the market responds.

 

My Diablo had an 11 year old accident when I bought it. I negotiated an extra $10k off the price just for the accident.

Cost to repair was only $6,000. I had CarFax change the listing from "accident" to "minor accident" with the cost to repair listed.

 

And I think I would feel more comfortable with an honest owner than someone trying to hide behind a "clean" CarFax

 

on my car with an accident report (that i am fully aware of, spoke to the people who reported it, repaired it etc), i cannot get a price worthwhile, so it has become my beater.....good things its a ferrari

 

I should make it clear that a expertly repainted panel may not coincidentally have a bad carfax and therefore not be devalued significantly.
So if a bad carfax shows minor damage you would certainly have the car inspected and if it's not structural you should buy it and not worry about the future value and have a nice car bought for a below market price-period.
Also many people are not that fanatical about their cars like 99% of us Ferrari owners.
I'm a Jeep dealer and every car I take on trade with a bad carfax ends up at auction where they're sold to dealers (at a discount) who eventually retail them to less discerning buyers.

 

Carfax reports damage based on the body shops invoice.

Boy shops are crooks. They fleece the insurance company for as much as they can by paying off the adjuster in cash. 2k in damage turns into 10k, with a 500 buck payout to the adjuster. Body shops are the biggest racket in the automotive industry. Free money everyday, all day.

Some even go as far to pay off the owner of the vehical a percentage in cash, just so they can triple their money. It's not drunk drivers keeping insurance rates high its body shops and adjusters.

 

Accepting cars with bad carfaxes is a dealer to dealer decision and most BMW ,Audi and Porshe dealers may accept on a trade but at a much lower price and send them to auction.
If carfax shows a minor dent al a shopping cart ding then it can be trade in and certified but there's no doubt at a lower price.

I just know from 30yrs of doing this that it's much,much harder to sell a car with a bad carfax so I have to give less $$$ when the car is traded to me.

 

I agree with c8spidey because I am one of those buyers. For the last 15 years I have bought all of my cars on the internet. The reason I do it is because it allows me to do a nationwide search and find the best car that meets my specific needs. I have bought cars in Florida, North Carolina, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and even here in good old California. I will tell you if there is a hint of an accident on a Carfax or any inconsistency whatsoever (like incomplete history), I move on.

So for me the discount would be 100%. I wont buy it (even if you gave it to me for free I probably wouldn’t take it—with issues like air bags not being fixed properly and all complexities of modern cars, it is just a bad, bad idea to buy a damaged car). I know I am over the top on this for many and many would “take a chance for the right price”, but to your point there are certainly less buyers, me being one, and so it is obviously harder to resell. That has to have a significant impact on price even for a minor accident showing on the CarFax.

 

What ?? Family owned a body shop for over 30 years. Purchased my 2000 Chevy Silverado (in 2008) and a 2006 4-wheeler (in 2017) to spray my property by greasing palms. Livin Large for sure !
Always enjoy reading your perspective and tonight I’ve learned that you are really, really, REALLY bad at picking a body shop! Lol
Kind of refreshing to see some pot stirring, usually it’s the mechanics that are getting unfairly ridiculed. This a Minnesota thing? Or are you getting your vehicles repaired in Guyana?

 

Body shops have been fleecing insurance company's for years. Along with tow truck companies. Charging storage is a biggie. The adjusters are in on the scam aswell. Quick 500 cash payout to inflate the costs of the claim. 2k job, turns into 5k. All parts supposed to be new? Nope, used will get installed for less the half the quoted price.

Sometimes the customers themselves are in on the deal. A quick 2k cash to the owner of the car, for a 10k return from the insurance company to the bodyshop.

Glad to hear your family owned shop was one of the good guys out there.

 

Hate when this happens. Always playing third string. Had I known this years earlier could have been driving that much desired 458! Damn business ethics and parents instilling moral values.
Seriously, saddens me to know this has become the norm. Parents worked very hard for everything they had.

 

Almost Everyone on here is talking about how you shouldn’t buy a car that has an accident on CARFAX .... the most severely damaged cars that I have seen in the Fcar world were fixed without insurance involved.
Most of the time when a Ferrari is involved in something serious it’s a total loss.

The issue is a lot of owners just get the repair done and don’t report to insurance cause they are one car collisions Any car you get should be inspected.. if you find something suspicious don’t buy... i would be more worried on a car with a clean carfax with mismatched paint that one they reported something minor and I have a description and documentation of what happened. Just my 2 cents.

 

all very true and all i can say is anyone buying any used vehicle should have it inspected even it has a clean carfax for peace of mind.