Begin rant.
Have you seen the flood of CarFax TV spots where cars are being “interviewed”? The first I saw had daddy asking if it is “safe, reliable?”. It ran so often that I would have been sick of it even if it weren’t misleading. Sure, some reconstructed cars are done so poorly that they may be unsafe, and some salvage titled cars (especially flood damaged) are notorious for gremlins from then on. And there are documented “lemons” which certainly fall under “unreliable”. But just as with anything else, a CarFax may uncover something but their commercials practically guarantee it and make claims of a complete history that far exceeds reality.
Now the new commercial is even worse than the prior one. The prospective owner asks if it has had “an accident of any kind” or if it “coughs or sputters”. What a load of crap. Very few accidents less than a total write-off are recorded, and few if any minor ones are, so they are blatantly misrepresenting the depth of the service. And since when were “tuning” issues reported? No doubt their lawyers would point to emissions pass/fail data to cover that claim, but it is obvious that the intent is to grossly mislead the consumer into thinking that far more data is available than what actually exists.
I think it’s time to start using the competitor’s services, and send a flood of email to CarFax telling them that their BS doesn’t cut it as well as to the FTC.
End rant.
Have you seen the flood of CarFax TV spots where cars are being “interviewed”? The first I saw had daddy asking if it is “safe, reliable?”. It ran so often that I would have been sick of it even if it weren’t misleading. Sure, some reconstructed cars are done so poorly that they may be unsafe, and some salvage titled cars (especially flood damaged) are notorious for gremlins from then on. And there are documented “lemons” which certainly fall under “unreliable”. But just as with anything else, a CarFax may uncover something but their commercials practically guarantee it and make claims of a complete history that far exceeds reality.
Now the new commercial is even worse than the prior one. The prospective owner asks if it has had “an accident of any kind” or if it “coughs or sputters”. What a load of crap. Very few accidents less than a total write-off are recorded, and few if any minor ones are, so they are blatantly misrepresenting the depth of the service. And since when were “tuning” issues reported? No doubt their lawyers would point to emissions pass/fail data to cover that claim, but it is obvious that the intent is to grossly mislead the consumer into thinking that far more data is available than what actually exists.
I think it’s time to start using the competitor’s services, and send a flood of email to CarFax telling them that their BS doesn’t cut it as well as to the FTC.
End rant.
