CARFAX Canada vehicle history reports contain information about damage that a car might have sustained in its lifetime. Depending on the incident, we can typically provide you with a close estimate of the cost of the repairs that were performed on the vehicle.
Information on any previous accidents or incidents are found in the Accident, Collision and Damage Detail section of your CARFAX Canada report under Insurance Claims. In some instances, it is possible that a report comes back showing that there has been damage to that vehicle, but the insurance payout recorded is $0. This means that while this vehicle does have damage in its history, the cost of the repairs are not known. While there are many reasons why this could happen, the most common explanations for a $0 claim are:
- The incident is recent and a claim has not yet been paid out by the insurance company
- The claim was denied by insurance as a result of an offense such as distracted driving or street racing
- The cost to fix the damage was around or less than the deductible so the owner chose to pay out of pocket
Even if the amount associated with the claim is $0, knowing that damage has occurred in the vehicle’s history is an important first step in determining whether or not this is the right vehicle for you. This discovery should prompt you to ask the seller as many questions as possible. If the seller is the original owner, they should have a good idea of what damage actually occurred to the vehicle. Even if they aren’t the original owner, this may have been a conversation that they had when they purchased the vehicle.
Your next step is to bring the vehicle, the CARFAX Canada report and any additional information you’ve gathered to a reputable mechanic for a pre-purchase inspection. Providing this mechanic with as much information as possible is important as it gives them a head start in their investigation. The damage that occurred could have been minimal, or maybe it was significant, but either way it’s important that before you make a purchase, you have a pre-purchase inspection to find out.
