Carfax, Inc. (stylized CARFAX) is an American company that provides vehicle data to individuals and businesses. Its best-known product is the CARFAX Vehicle History Report. Their other products include vehicle listings, car valuation, and buying and maintenance advice.

History

CARFAX was founded in

Columbia, Missouri Columbia is a city in Missouri, United States. It was founded in 1821 as the county seat of Boone County, Missouri, Boone County and had a population of 126,254 as recorded in the 2020 United States census, making it the List of cities in Misso ...

in 1984 by Ewin Barnett III and Robert Daniel Clark. In 1986, by working closely with the

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

Automobile Dealers Association, the company offered an early version of the CARFAX vehicle history report to the dealer market. These reports were developed with a

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and a ...

of 10,000 records and distributed via

fax Fax (short for facsimile), sometimes called telecopying or telefax (short for telefacsimile), is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material (both text and images), normally to a telephone number connected to a printer or other out ...

. In December 1996, the company launched its website as part of an effort to sell its reports directly to consumers. CARFAX has undergone several ownership changes since its founding. In the fall of 1999, Carfax became a wholly owned

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

of R.L. Polk & Company. In 2013,

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acquired Polk and CARFAX. In March 2016,

had a

merger of equals Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

with

Markit Markit was a British financial information and services company that focused on credit derivative pricing. It was founded in 2003 and merged in 2016 with IHS to form IHS Markit. Prior to its merger it had 4,500 employees in 21 offices worldwi ...

, becoming

IHS Markit Accuris is an information services provider. History IHS Information Handling Services (IHS) "was founded in 1959 as Information Handling Services to provide information for aerospace engineers through microfilm databases". It subsequently gre ...

. On February 28, 2022,

S&P Global S&P Global Inc. (prior to 2016, McGraw Hill Financial, Inc., and prior to 2013, The McGraw–Hill Companies, Inc.) is an American publicly traded corporation headquartered in Manhattan, New York City. Its primary areas of business are financia ...

purchased IHS Markit, and CARFAX became a brand in the company's newly formed S&P Global Mobility business unit. On April 29, 2025, S&P Global announced their intent to separate their Mobility division into a standalone public company.

Vehicle history reports

The CARFAX

vehicle history report A used car, a pre-owned vehicle, or a secondhand car, is a vehicle that has previously had one or more retail owners. Used cars are sold through a variety of outlets, including franchise and independent car dealers, rental car companies, buy ...

is the company's best-known product. A CARFAX Report can provide information about the number of owners a used car has had, accidents it has been in, title issues, whether it was a fleet vehicle, and its maintenance record, among other aspects of its history.

Information sourcing

CARFAX claims to have access to over 35

billion Billion is a word for a large number, and it has two distinct definitions: * 1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million, or (ten to the ninth power), as defined on the short scale. This is now the most common sense of the word in all varieties of ...

records from more than 151,000 sources, including motor vehicle departments for the 50 U.S. states and the 10 Canadian provinces. The company's information sources include U.S. state title and registration records, auto and salvage auctions, Canadian motor vehicle records, rental and fleet vehicle companies,

consumer protection Consumer protection is the practice of safeguarding buyers of goods and services, and the public, against unfair practices in the marketplace. Consumer protection measures are often established by law. Such laws are intended to prevent business ...

agencies, state inspection stations, extended warranty companies, insurance companies, fire and police departments, manufacturers, inspection companies, service and repair facilities, dealers and import/export companies. Although CARFAX continuously expands its database and resources, some information is not allowed to be provided. Under the 1994 U.S. '' Drivers Privacy Protection Act'', personal information such as names, telephone numbers and addresses of current or previous owners are neither collected nor reported. CARFAX does not have access to every facility and mistakes are sometimes made by those who input data. In the event information is disputed but cannot be verified, CARFAX allows consumers and dealerships to add information to its reports.

Disputes

''West v. CARFAX''

In a 2006 class-action lawsuit, the plaintiff claimed that CARFAX violated consumer protection laws by not disclosing the limitations of its service, specifically its inability to check accident records in 23 states in the U.S. while stating that its database contains information from all 50 states. The lawsuit was settled in May 2007 in the Trumbull County Common Pleas Court in

Warren, Ohio Warren is a city in Trumbull County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. The population was 39,201 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located along the Mahoning River, Warren lies approximately northwest of Youngstown, Ohio, Y ...

. The company asserts that it has major accident information from all 50 states and it backs up its claim with a buyback guarantee. The settlement in the ''West v. CARFAX, Inc.'' lawsuit was overturned, not on the merits of the issue, but on the terms of the settlement which did not offer enough to the affected consumers and because "not enough consumers were notified and the judge should not have agreed to the settlement without knowing more about what it would cost CARFAX."

Accident report for wrong vehicle

In 2024, the ''

Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

'' reported the case of a driver who was unable to get Carfax to remove an obviously incorrect report of an accident for her car, which had never been in any accident. About 3,200 license plate numbers in Massachusetts overlap between commercial and passenger vehicles, and despite a police report clearly coded for a commercial vehicle, Carfax assigned an accident to the passenger vehicle instead. The company asked the driver to have the police "correct" the accident report, which did not have any errors, and eventually became unresponsive. The false Carfax report was only corrected when a newspaper reporter contacted the company, which did not apologize for the error.

Advertising

Car Fox is a fictional character of the vehicle history service. Car Fox started as a

puppet A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or Legendary creature, mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. Puppetry is an ancient form of theatre which dates back to the 5th century BC in anci ...

.Carfax 'CAR FOX' Drives Used Car Shoppers to Reputable Dealers in Latest 'Show Me the CARFAX' Ads
Retrieved 2010 June 11.

References

{{Authority control Online automotive companies of the United States American companies established in 1984 Internet properties established in 1984 Used car market Companies based in Fairfax County, Virginia 1984 establishments in Missouri