AutoCheck vs. Carfax: Which Vehicle History Report Is Best for You?

Vehicle history reports are an integral part of any used car purchase. Reports from services such as AutoCheck, Bumper and Carfax shed light on a car's backstory and can alert you to potential problems or inconsistencies before you hand over your money. Each has its strengths and blind spots, so below we'll look at how to maximize your time and investment. With the cost of a single Carfax report at $45, a single AutoCheck report at $25, and a monthly subscription to the newer service Bumper at $23 (after a seven-day trial), it's imperative you know what kind of information you're getting with each.

Below, we'll share our experiences with AutoCheck vs. Carfax. We'll update again once we have some time behind the wheel with Bumper.

Why do I need a vehicle history report?

A vehicle history report is your first look into a car's life story. Of course we want to believe the stories sellers tell us — "one owner, immaculate," "belonged to a grandmother who hardly drove it," "no accidents, changed the oil every 5,000 miles." But we'll let the words of former President Ronald Reagan guide us here: "Trust, but verify."

A vehicle history report can usually tell us whether a car has been in an accident or possibly given a "branded" title, a broad category of titles indicating extensive damage. Branding means an insurance company has declared the vehicle a total loss because of an accident, flood damage or other catastrophic event. A salvage title is one example, issued when a car has been damaged seriously enough in a crash to warrant writing it off rather than pay to fix it.

The car's vehicle identification number (VIN) is the key to the vehicle history report. The 17-digit VIN is like the car's Social Security number: It's used to note nearly every major event in an auto's lifetime. Typically, the information on a vehicle history report includes a summary and an overall evaluation of the vehicle, supported with details, dates and locations. The report makes it easy to see if the car has been registered in numerous states. Other information can include a description of the vehicle, the number of previous owners, accident information, verification of recent mileage (which could include an alert for an odometer rollback), and lemon-law and recall checks. For definitive information on recalls for any used car that you're considering, use the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's free VIN lookup tool.

Several companies sell vehicle history reports, promising to reveal the past of any given vehicle. Keep in mind no report is perfect. It's only as good as the incidents that have been reported to the database. If someone gets into a minor accident and chooses to repair the car without involving an insurance company (rates often rise after making a claim), the accident will not be reflected in the report.

Similarly, if the body shop handling the repairs does not share its data with the vehicle history companies, it won't appear on a report either. A vehicle could have frame damage and you wouldn't know it by just reading the report. That said, we still recommend running a report before driving across town to see a car in person.

Can you get a free vehicle history or title report?

The reports from the biggest players, AutoCheck and Carfax, are expensive, ranging from $25 for one report to $100 for five. And if you're shopping for a used car on the private-party market, you'll likely be paying for the reports yourself. Shopping at a car dealership is a different story. Most major used car dealers and some car-selling sites will provide a free Carfax report or AutoCheck report. You can find many of these vehicles on the Edmunds used car inventory page or on dealership websites.

If you find yourself on the used car lot and want to know the history of a particular vehicle, ask for a report. All dealers have vehicle history report subscriptions, usually with AutoCheck or Carfax, and will run a free report for interested buyers. This report becomes a valuable source of third-party information. If the dealer refuses to run a vehicle history report or provides an outdated report, it's a possible red flag.

No matter whether you're shopping for vehicles from private sellers or at a dealership, it's good to know what you'll get — and what you won't — in these reports. Here's a look at AutoCheck vs. Carfax, along with some other providers, and our experience in how they stack up.

Carfax
Carfax is the most well-known provider of vehicle history reports. It dates back to the late 1980s when it faxed reports to its customers. It is also the most expensive. A single Carfax report costs $44.99. Three will cost you $64.99, and five sell for $99.99.

The Carfax report is the benchmark for all other vehicle history reports. If a vehicle has had multiple owners, the information is clearly labeled and organized in different sections. Carfax also has more detailed maintenance records, information that can inform what issues a vehicle might have had. It's also an indicator that a prior owner took good care of the vehicle.

We ran a report on a 2008 Lexus ES 350 that spent its life in Texas. Carfax had 25 service records, including one to replace the drive belts. That's an expensive repair and good to know about as a buyer. AutoCheck only had four service records and did not have the information on the drive belts.

Our opinion: Carfax is pricey but worth it given its detailed and user-friendly reports. For many, a clean Carfax report is the first step in getting a good used car.

AutoCheck
AutoCheck is owned by Experian, the credit reporting company. Similar to how Experian issues credit scores, AutoCheck is notable for providing a vehicle "score" — a number and a range — such as 85 out of a range of 70 to 90. The company says that this score helps forecast the predicted reliability of a vehicle at a glance. It is meant to be a quick way to identify and eliminate vehicles that might have issues, ranging from high mileage to reported accidents.

AutoCheck's scale isn't zero to 100, which can be confusing. We ran the VIN of a 2015 Honda Civic, and it received a score of 82. Sounds like a good car, right? But this Civic was in a major accident, declared a total loss and issued a salvage title, according to the report. The numbers that matter are the range and where the particular car scores in that range. In this case, the range for similar Civics was 88-93. The car we checked, the one that scored 82, was 6 points below the bottom of the range. Not a great bet for a used car.

We also ran the VIN of a 1992 Honda Prelude with a salvage title. It scored 25 out of a range of 31-53. Six points seemed to be the deduction for having a salvage title, but the numbers weren't clearly explained.

AutoCheck charges $24.99 for a single report. But few people consider only one used car when they're shopping, so you'd likely opt for the higher-tier plan at $49.99, which gives you access to five reports in 21 days.

Our opinion: AutoCheck isn't quite as good as Carfax. Still, even though it doesn't have Carfax's name recognition or more logical report style, AutoCheck is worth a look. It's less expensive for multiple reports ($50 for five vehicle history reports versus $100 for five Carfax reports). The vehicle score is nice as a quick reference, but don't put too much stock in it.

Bumper
Bumper is a newer service with a subscription model. It costs $1 for a seven-day trial, during which time you can run up to 50 reports. Then you'll be charged $22.99 per month and limited to 50 reports per month. We haven't had an opportunity yet to test the depths of Bumper's search and gathering abilities but will update this article when we do. Its user interface is slick and more intuitive than either Carfax or AutoCheck, and it certainly represents a bargain with its free trial period and relatively low cost for a month's subscription and ability to run another 50 reports.

National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS)
The title information in the NMVTIS comes from participating state motor vehicle registries. Run by the federal Department of Justice, the system is the only one that's publicly available in the U.S. to which all insurance carriers, auto recyclers, junkyards and salvage yards must, by law, report on a regular basis. The NMVTIS web page has a list of third-party companies that provide history reports. The prices range from free to about $20. It's a less expensive alternative, but based on our experience, you get what you pay for.

You won't find any fancy scores or detailed entries of any type in these history reports. These sites should only be used to determine when and where the vehicle was registered and to learn if a branded title was issued.

Our opinion: We would only recommend using this resource to determine if your potential car has a branded title. Even then, it is best used as a secondary check. Save your money for a report from AutoCheck or Carfax instead.

Test-driving the reports

We tested more than a dozen vehicles in AutoCheck and Carfax to gauge the differences in the reports and see which was easiest to use.

We found that AutoCheck's data wasn't as comprehensive or detailed as Carfax's. We ran a report on a 2015 Kia Optima with a salvage title, for example. AutoCheck showed that it had two owners. Carfax listed three owners and caught an accident that hadn't appeared on the AutoCheck report. In comparing the two reports side by side, the AutoCheck report recorded a DMV event that indicated a third new owner, but the report hadn't yet factored that into its at-a-glance owner count. We found it difficult to determine when and for how long each person owned the vehicle on the AutoCheck report.

We also tried out two of the NMVTIS vehicle history reports with our test VINs and came away largely disappointed. Neither the free nor the $7 reports told us anything beyond whether the vehicle had a branded title and how often it was issued a title, presumably to a new owner. These reports do little to flesh out the actual backstory of a car.

A good start for used car shopping
A vehicle history report isn't going to guarantee you're getting a good used car. A mechanical inspection is still a good idea. And if you suspect structural or frame damage, a body shop visit could save you from an expensive mistake. But running a report is a valuable first step that will save you time and money. It could also protect you from buying a car with a checkered past.