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 a used auto accident history, your chances of buying a wreck are high. Thousands of cars were damaged when terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center. These cars were salvaged, rebuilt, sold at car auctions and have their titles rebuilt.

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. Auto Accident history are only as accurate as the data from their sources.

Millions of used cars have costly hidden problems. A Used Vehicle History Report can save you thousands of dollars by revealing the true history of the car. The Carfax database contains over one billion records compiled from over 100 separate sources including motor vehicle departments in the US and Canada, inspection stations, auto auctions, fire and police departments and insurance companies.

You're shopping for a used car when you think you've hit pay dirt. It's a '95 import with low miles. It drives great, and the price is right. When you question the owner about the car's history, he says he bought it from a used car lot only two years ago. You're about to write a check when you have a troubling thought: This deal seems too good to be true. Maybe something's wrong with the car that they are keeping hidden. Who owned the car before? Is there any damage or problems you should know about? At one time there was no way to check a vehicle's history. Buyers could only go on the evidence in front of them, basing their decision on the mechanical condition of the car. But computer technology has made it possible to use the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) to reveal a car's possibly checkered past.

Auto Accident history can be ordered from a number of Internet companies. The first company to offer this service is Carfax, which, as the name suggests, began faxing used car reports as early as 1986. Now, the Fairfax, Virginia-based company accesses 4,400 different information sources and a database of more than 2 billion records to compile reports that are e-mailed almost instantaneously to customers. Users can also get a free Carfax Safety & Reliability Report that includes key make and model level information when ordering the unlimited Carfax report option.

While Carfax seems to be the leader in this new field, there are many other companies vying for the consumer's business. Many of these companies draw on similar sources for their information and present the data in a compiled report at competitive prices. Carfax charges $19.99 for a single report and $24.99 for an unlimited number of reports for one month. Consumer Guide has taken the process one step further. Vehicle history information is drawn from the monster database of Experian (with 1.7 billion records) and coupled with Consumer Guide's repair information.