I recently had both ran on this car I am about to buy next week (01 325i). Auto check claims one owner, but carfax states it had a lein/new title at 40k and calls that a new owner.
Title number stayed the same besides the last 3 digits so that makes me think it is single owner who took a loan out or something weird like that.
It scored a 92 on Autocheck and is worth $60 more than retail per carfax, YAY! lol.
I know it really doesnt matter in the long run, but its nice to know I suppose…
Bing probably knows best here, but both are only effective if issues are actually reported to them / the state. I know Florida has very relaxed rules and you’ve got to look out when buying an FL car.
these service providers have to pay for access to data and they are HYPER competitive with each other.
they often pay their providers more for exclusivity to data where ever they can… which may not be from gov’ts but certainly from private third parties or service records from dealerships or bodies of dealerships as an example.
my understanding is that Carfax has far and away the best data network in the US and if the competitive landscape is anything like it is in Canada then Carfax will be by far the better report in the US.
In Canada right now you need to get a CarProof report… but if you’re a canadian buying a US car you need a carfax.
When i was buying my Inifiniti i inquired with a dealership on a US imported G35. When i asked about the history report they said it had a clean carproof… but i know Carproof has no US data, or limited US data so i told him that a carproof is useless for a US car, i wanted the carfax. He then advised that it was re-mileaged and had a front end accident on carfax.
tricky tricky
Autocheck is a minor player from what i know and will have less data than carfax.