allyolds68

I'm cheap and never buy anything new. 5 years ago I bought a 2011 Enclave in February of 2012 that was a 9 months old former rental car with 14K miles We've had pretty good luck with it. It's got 76k on it and it's time for a "new" one.


The Enclave is a model that is heavily used in rental car industry. About this time of year the one year old (or less) 2016's start becoming available. Most are the mid grade trim package; AWD, leather, blue tooth, decent sound system (but not the Bose). Pretty much everything my wife wants. The only problem is about 95% have black interiors, 4% have titanium (light gray) and about 1% have Choccachino (tan). Guess which one my wife has to have........


So I find one on a used car lot in Clearwater Florida (I live 1000 miles away). Black with Choccachino interior, perfect. They send a CarFax dated 10/28/16. Zero Accidents. Something just doesn't feel right though because the price is cheap. Not crazy cheap, but about what I'd pay for a black interior Enclave at my local "we sell cars for a fixed lowest price" dealership. So I ordered a third party inspection for $180. Cheap insurance. In the mean time I ask my neighbor to run an Autocheck on it (he sells a few used cars and has a "limited" subscription that has no details). The car comes back with an accident.........


So my question is. Is there ANY reporting service that gives detailed information about the damage? I expect that I'll get some decent info from the $180 inspection but they supposedly don't run a report on the VIN with any of the services.


Thanks in advance........

Olds64

I know for Fords a dealer or a shop can run what's called an Oasis report (your friend might be able to get ahold of one too). That will reveal all the work done on the car at the dealer. I'm sure there is a GM equivalent, I just don't know what it's called.

oldcutlass

Carfax is about 95% accurate, if it has a reported accident or repair it usually pulls it up. Another route you can take is through your insurance company, they can sometimes pull up claims by vin#. An Enclave takes a really big hit in the used market.

allyolds68

That's a good idea. I definitely try that


When I looked at the Enclave in 2012 I realized that they were terrible at holding their value in the short term, that's why I bought a one year old one. I work with a guy that paid $48k for a loaded Enclave in 2011. I bought a 9 month old one without navigation and the Bose stereo 11 months later for $31K.


I think the Rental car market kills the value but that's great for someone buying one used.

oldcutlass

Yup, the rental car market kills the value of most cars and midsize suv's.

Koda

Now if they just made a HoFax so I know what I'm getting into at the local bar....

ignachuck

95% accuracy for Carfax might be a little high. Not all accidents are caught by Carfax (no insurance claim, no police report). And Carfax info can be challenged and changed, and dealers do that. But it is a valuable tool. If a seller refuses to provide a Carfax, be careful.

allyolds68

My uneasiness with this dealer came largely from a few reviews that were on cargurus.com and google.com where purchasers accused them of fabricating or being less than honest with Carfax reports. Below is the link to the report they sent me for this specific Enclave


http://freeautohistoryreport.net/CAR...EnclaveAWD.pdf


It looks official being from "freeautohistoryreport.net". What it really is is just photo/PDF hosting website likely set up by this dealer. When I ran my own free carfax.com (which doesn't tell you much), it looked pretty much identical to this except it doesn't give you any of the information on the bottom.

cutlassjoe

My 2012 Chrysler 300 was a rental car. I got it towards the end of 2012 and it had about 8000 miles on it. I was a little worried about it being a rental. I now have 115,000 miles on it and have not had any issues with it at all. I am getting a clunking noise in the front end. I think it's the ball joints or control arms. It's going in next week for service.

oldcutlass

The key word I used was reported. There are places that repair cars that do not report, I agree. I was in the used car industry for many years and found that Carfax is a reputable source for info.

The Carfax link is legit, and I would not hesitate to purchase this car. The other perk is the car still has full factory warranty. Most rental companies take better care of their cars than regular owners do.

ignachuck

Me too....

allyolds68

Even though Autocheck says it's had an accident?

oldcutlass

Did it? They both use the same info, its very rare for them to differ.

allyolds68

Like I said in my previous post, my neighbor ran his basic Autocheck and it said there was an accident. I'm waiting for the third party inspection before I decide whether to pay for the full Autocheck report.

oldcutlass

It depends on the type of accident and how well the repair was performed. My advise, if you feel uneasy then keep searching, there are plenty of cars out there.

allyolds68

I've been looking for two months. Like I said above, less than 1% have the Choccachino interior. Not easy to find at all. Especially for a reasonable price.

Olds442redberet

Working on a car lot I have used Carfax extensively. CarFax only shows a reported accident. Usually reported by the dealer or the insurance company. Carfax doesn't give the buyer a full account though. An accident report my show there was an accident but it will not give you the full extent of the accident, damaged incurred, or repairs made. On occasion I've seen reports of frame damage or structural damage but I couldn't always find where the damage was due to the high quality of the repairs. I have also encountered cars with rear end damage reported and on full inspection of the car, there is only a dent in the rubber bumper cover with no other damage. Bad Carfax but a good car otherwise. Carfax reports do not show abuse done by the previous owners or damage done by previous owners that are repaired at smaller body shops. The Carfax report is an excellent adjunct to a good inspection and test drive.

Olds442redberet

Edmunds.com is a good resource when researching new or used vehicles. They have a lot of tools and historical articles that will help you identify issues and concerns as well as strong points of the vehicle you are looking at. Insurance cost, Cost to own and maintain, average fuel cost, etc.

Olds442redberet

I've bought a lot of cars over the phone. I bought a Mercedes from a Porsche Dealership in Chicago and a BMW from a dealer in Lexington KY. I mean I bought them and had them shipped to me. I have a lot of experience. And it's still risky. But if you have the knowledge, can get an inspector you trust to look the car over, and you're buying from a credible seller, it can be done.

A friend recently bought a Lexus from a Lexus Dealer in Florida and he was taken. The car was not as advertised. It was rough and had extensive damage that was hidden by the photographer. After it arrived there was not much we could do. The dealer was difficult to deal with. But we were lucky. It was sold at a much smaller loss than we expected and we moved on. We also learned a lot. LOL

OLD SKL 69

It can be a crapshoot buying a used car sight unseen. Those digital pics hide a lot of sins. I almost bought a 98 Riviera recently based on a clean Carfax report and 40 digital pics. I ordered a $200 inspection from WeGoLook and the guy gave me a very thorough report, showing damage/rust that wasn't disclosed in the pictures and description from the dealer. Also, he found mechanical issues as he took it for a test drive too. Saved me a lot of headaches. I've only used them once, but based on my experience, I would definitely use their service again.

Olds64

x2

allyolds68

I finally got the $180 inspection report. What a piece of crap. Don't ever get an inspection report from carzinspection.com. I paid $50 extra for them to run an OBD scan which apparently didn't even do. The pics they included were terrible and it took them almost a week to do something they said would be done in two days.

The Autocheck was included which showed the car was in one accident with air bags deployed and had to be towed from the scene. That was the only really useful info in the whole report. I don't have any way to tell if the CarFax the dealer provided was a forgery because I don't have a subscription. If I was going to get a subscription to anything now it would be Autocheck.

The search goes on. If anyone knows of a 2016 Enclave with the Leather trim package, Choccachino interior, less than 20k miles, and less than $35k, let me know.

Happy Trails

A friend of mine recently purchased a car that almost matches your specs. It's a 2016 brown Enclave with the Choccachino leather. It had 27K miles and she paid $35K. I don't know much about the Enclave, but her car looks like it has all the bells and whistles and pretty much every option.

She bought it from a dealer in the Minneapolis/St. Paul MN area and there were 3 that looked about the same but with different miles. She picked that one because it had the highest miles and was the cheapest.

I see a lot of Enclaves on the road up here in MN. There's a 2015 on Craigslist that almost matches your specs (2015, 27K miles, $30K asking). The soccer moms seem to be migrating towards this style from minivans, including my friend.

olds 307 and 403

If own one of these awful, ugly vehicles, I know the end is hopefully near. There are a **** ton around here, especially the chebby version, unfortunately awd is almost necessary here. I call them diaper mobiles, either you have kids or they are old enough to wear them.

allyolds68

I ended up getting a 2016 Enclave Premium in Dark Sapphire Blue Metallic with a Choccachino interior yesterday. It's got 18k miles and it's loaded. Trailer package, rear DVD, etc. It's even got the cross rails. I bought it from a Buick dealer 200 miles away in East Rutherford, NJ and it couldn't have gone any easier. My wife loves it.

BangScreech4-4-2

Did you get it for your price?

allyolds68

$36.8k which was more than I wanted to spend but is a very good price for the Premium trim package. And my wife got exactly what she wanted.....

oldcutlass

Glad you found one and the MRS is happy, very important.

CRUZN 66

Congratulations on your purchase... As they say, happy wife, happy life...

BangScreech4-4-2

That's definitely the important thing.