Carfax has spent a lot of money in getting the consumer to relate their "brand" to the product. As Kleenex is to a tissue or Xerox is to making a copy.
This can be great for branding and marketing but at the same time it can become so associated to the product that it not only becomes generic, but the consumer no longer recognizes or is aware of the differences between the related brand from the actual product. Taking that scenario into consideration on top of the average consumer purchasing a new/used vehicle only every so many years, I believe what happens for most consumers is what Cody pointed out in his comment above...
We switched to Auto Check my old dealership, who I still consult with. In 4 years only one person absolutely had to have carfax.
In all the 20 years on the side of the dealership, I can't recall ever being at a dealership that used a different vehicle history report over Carfax. Therefore I have little to add to the AutoCheck vs CarFax debate.
For the longest time, Carfax had the competitive edge over any competitor due to it's relationships with the OEM's and
Channel Partners such as Cars.com and AutoTrader.com. Unfortunately for Carfax, this once dominated landscape has changed over the last year or so.
With that being said, I believe we may see some interesting
value ad features come out of the Carfax camp. Competition is good!
Lets not forget that of less than a year ago, Carfax has a set of new parents -
IHS to buy Carfax owner R.L. Polk
FYI - this same question was posted several months ago.
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