Insurance + Carfax

[iTech]

Long story short, at a supercharger and another driver ripped the Xpel wrap on my door by swinging his door wide open. He had originally agreed to pay cash, but once he saw the quote for replacing the film he wanted to use insurance.

Does anyone know if insurance, directly or indirectly (via data sales etc.), report accidents to Carfax even if they're minor (e.g no body damage but paying for film replacement)? There was no police report and it's not going to a body shop, just the shop that had installed the original film.

The main concern being that if it appears on Carfax, the value of the car would have went down because of this minor accident.

 

[smalltownguy]

I see you referring to it as an "accident"

I will say my insurance told me any reported accident will count against all parties. They said there is no accident 100% fault to just one party.

Your insurance company may consider it differently but just figured I would out this out there.

I learned the hard way after a super small accident with no damage to either vehicle, (both were under $1000 value junker cars). the other party just had to call the cops, even after I told them "yield means yield". He got a ticket, and my insurance went up! No claim was made by either party, just a police report.

 

[iTech]

I see you referring to it as an "accident"

I will say my insurance told me any reported accident will count against all parties. They said there is no accident 100% fault to just one party.

Your insurance company may consider it differently but just figured I would out this out there.

I learned the hard way after a super small accident with no damage to either vehicle, (both were under $1000 value junker cars). the other party just had to call the cops, even after I told them "yield means yield". He got a ticket, and my insurance went up! No claim was made by either party, just a police report.

It was reported under the other driver's policy and paid out via their policy for sure. Whether or not my premium will go up because of this, I have no idea. I guess we'll see at renewal time? Although I'll be pretty mad if that's the case.

I do know that police reports 100% will appear on Carfax since they're "open" to the Carfax system.

 

[Rockster]

Body shops use software for estimating and parts ordering and often the authors of that software form agreements with Carfax to data mine repair data. This is disclosed only in the software license agreement that few body shops scrutinize. (When's the last time someone read every word of a software license agreement?) The net result being that a body shop can truly believe that they are not reporting your repair to Carfax when, in fact, they really are and don't even realize it.

Here's an auto body industry publication talking about this very subject:

Collision Repair Data Mining: Is It a Threat to Your Business? - Body Shop Business