Please Help: What does this Carfax Report tell me?

[xycrazy]

Hey all,

I'm in the process of buying a used 2021 Escalade 4WD Sport Platinum and I pulled the Carfax report.
I'm not sure how to interpret the many dealership visits where it says Wind Noise checked and Body leak check.

I post the full Carfax down below. Could someone please help me to interpret what's going on and whether it's "normal" or something is fishy?
FWIW car was driven in the Midwest (Indiana) and got sold via auction with 41K miles. Brake Calipers and rotors are rusty. Made a separate thread for that Rusty Calipers

Thank you!

3,700 (1/22/21)			Vehicle serviced Maintenance inspection completed Wind noise checked Body water leak checked
4,177 (2/8/21)			Vehicle serviced Maintenance inspection completed Interior trim checked Drivetrain checked
7,036 (6/18/21)			Vehicle serviced Maintenance inspection completed Exterior trim checked Oil and filter changed Tires rotated
15,875 (02/17/22)			Vehicle serviced Maintenance inspection completed Oil and filter changed Tires rotated Wind noise checked Body water leak checked Vehicle washed/detailed Body electrical system checked
16,204 (3/21/22)			Vehicle serviced Maintenance inspection completed Wind noise checked Body water leak checked
18,287 (5/10/22)			Vehicle serviced Maintenance inspection completed
23,548 (10/13/22)			Vehicle serviced Maintenance inspection completed Oil and filter changed Wind noise checked Body water leak checked
26,608 (12/14/22)			Vehicle serviced Maintenance inspection completed Wiper(s) replaced
29,908 (3/17/23)			Vehicle serviced Maintenance inspection completed Oil and filter changed Air filter replaced Cabin air filter replaced/cleaned
33,565 (7/10/23)			Vehicle serviced Maintenance inspection completed Wind noise checked Body water leak checked Oil and filter changed Two tires mounted Two tires balanced Four wheel alignment performed Alignment performed
34,743 (8/3/23)			Vehicle serviced Maintenance inspection completed
37,082 (11/08/23)			Vehicle serviced Maintenance inspection completed Oil and filter changed Body electrical system checked

 

[jforb]

It means it leaks, and was not fixed?

 

[Antonm]

A 2021 being sold at auction with only 41K miles means something is surely wrong with it. Might not be a deal breaker if you can get it for the right price, just know someone dumped it and it's likely a lemon law/ dealer buy back car.
...

 

[xycrazy]

I posted that in a different thread:

I got the work orders. I nowhere see anything related to the brakes but I see a rattling muffler was classified under wind noises / water leaks. I added screenshots. Obviously not really a leak but classified as such. They also had issues with rattling noise coming from the dash, a loose tailgate (which they fixed), issues with rattling noise when it comes to stop at 10-15mph and a seat belt sign that was caused by the retractor (repaired / changed).

I'm not sure... sounds like a lot was going on with this car. I don't wanna buy a lemon. Doesn't sound like one but it seems that it was quite some time in the shop...

 

[tom3]

Looks like some nagging problems in a machine expected to be perfect. And 2021 isn't known to be a perfect year for those either.

 

[xycrazy]

A 2021 being sold at auction with only 41K miles means something is surely wrong with it. Might not be a deal breaker if you can get it for the right price, just know someone dumped it and it's likely a lemon law/ dealer buy back car.
...

I thought it was sold at auction but seems that I mixed it up with another one. So this one is probably not sold at auction but I can't say for sure.

Anyways, this is what I figured out by reading the service history reports:

I got the work orders. I nowhere see anything related to the rusty calipers but I see a rattling muffler was classified under wind noises / water leaks. I added screenshots. Obviously not really a leak but classified as such. They also had issues with rattling noise coming from the dash, a loose tailgate (which they fixed), issues with rattling noise when it comes to stop at 10-15mph and a seat belt sign that was caused by the retractor (repaired / changed).

I'm not sure... sounds like a lot was going on with this car. I don't wanna buy a lemon. Doesn't sound like one but it seems that it was quite some time in the shop...

 

[xycrazy]

It means it leaks, and was not fixed?

it's apparently fixed

 

[Antonm]

Looks like some nagging problems in a machine expected to be perfect. And 2021 isn't known to be a perfect year for those either.

A Cadillac Escalade 4x4 Sport Platinum is a $100K plus new all day long even in 2021. You'd think for that kind of money it would be darn near perfect.

Maybe I'm just getting old , but it just seems like everything is crap now, nothing seems to be made to last yet it's twice as expensive. Perfect example is our cell phones, it's literally normal to spend over $1k every year on a new cell phone, and you're suppose to just throw the old one away that you spend $1k for just last year.
...

 

[tooleyondeck]

looks like they most recently ran it almost 14K miles between oil changes... not good for these sensitive 6.2s

 

[B-train]

It doesn't look like 41k I'd be willing to spend........

The little nagging exhaust noises etc seemed to be related to the stop/start feature which is easy to disable.
Good find @tooleyondeck about the oil change intervals - I glossed right over that. It also could have had one at a shop that doesn't report, but nonetheless something to think about.

If you really like it, low ball them and make it worth the potential aggravation.

 

[DontTaseMeBro]

It doesn't look like 41k I'd be willing to spend........

The little nagging exhaust noises etc seemed to be related to the stop/start feature which is easy to disable.
Good find @tooleyondeck about the oil change intervals - I glossed right over that. It also could have had one at a shop that doesn't report, but nonetheless something to think about.

If you really like it, low ball them and make it worth the potential aggravation.

Where did you see that they're asking $41k for it? The mileage is 41k, no price mentioned by OP. Unless I'm missing something?

 

[B-train]

Where did you see that they're asking $41k for it? The mileage is 41k, no price mentioned by OP. Unless I'm missing something?

You are correct. I must have misconstrued the verbiage of multiple replies.........is been a long week of training, so my mind is a little mushy

 

[the 18th letter]

looks like they most recently ran it almost 14K miles between oil changes... not good for these sensitive 6.2s

My car fax will look similar as I do my own oil changes every other service. The sheet will look like I only changed it every 12k.

 

[xycrazy]

41K Miles, 79.9K asking

Where did you see that they're asking $41k for it? The mileage is 41k, no price mentioned by OP. Unless I'm missing something?

 

[B-train]

41K Miles, 79.9K asking

Ohh.....thanks for the clarification. It's definitely out of my comfort zone on price now for sure. LOL

 

[Stbentoak]

My car fax will look similar as I do my own oil changes every other service. The sheet will look like I only changed it every 12k.

Why aren't you putting in your own DIY entries? I do, and my Carfax looks seamless and logical.

 

[BacDoc]

looks like they most recently ran it almost 14K miles between oil changes... not good for these sensitive 6.2s

I noticed that too! I like to change oil on new engine 500-1000 miles and every 3k after that. Some might say that is excessive but keeping maintenance records and frequent oil changes is one of the best things to help resale. When I sold my trucks with this documentation most astute buyers paid higher premium price and they didn’t haggle.

 

[Antonm]

Why aren't you putting in your own DIY entries? I do, and my Carfax looks seamless and logical.

Yet another thing that makes Carfax pretty much useless. If you can enter DIY stuff (which BTW I didn't even know you could), then owners could fraudulently enter anything they want.

A few years ago I was looking for a used car and bought ten Carfax reports. Settled on a car before I used up all ten reports and the reports expire, so I ran reports on some of the other cars I had bought new and still owned (so I knew the history) and one car of a family member (that also bought their car new). The carfax reports were glaring wrong for all three.

For one car the report said the car had three owners, mostly likely because it had been registered in three different states (active duty military at the time, we moved a lot), but another of our cars which had also moved with us, and been registered in three states, still showed as only one owner. That second car (my wifes daily) had been in two collisions, minor collisions sure, but repaired at a dealership and paid for by the insurance company both times, neither collison showed up on the carfax report. The family member's car had a very incomplete service /repair history. I do my own maintenance, so of course routine maintenance was missing from my reports, but the family member was a frequent dealership flyer, literally everything besides putting dang gas in the car happend at the dealership, at least 2/3 of the service/ repair history was simply not on the carfax report.

As a result of this personal experience , I put little faith in what carfax has to say (although them not recording the two accidents my wifes car was in may have increased its trade in value, so maybe I should be thankful to them for being inaccurate).
...

 

[Stbentoak]

Would you rather see one that made sense with a mixture of dealer and DIY services or just trust "I took really good care of it" when looking at a used vehicle?

Also, not every dealer participates in CarFax so it isn't just automatically there if you went there....

 

[the 18th letter]

Why aren't you putting in your own DIY entries? I do, and my Carfax looks seamless and logical.

Had no idea…