A vehicles history report sifts through a trove of data to find theft records, flood damage history, accident indicators such as deployed airbags, and title changes related to a specific VIN number. It will tell you how many previous owners the car has had, if the odometerreading is verifiably correct, if there’s a loan or lien against the car, and if it has a clean title or was ever deemed a total loss.

It is a layout of all reported  safety and emission inspection history. If a car ever failed an inspection, the report calls that out, along with when it failed and the mileage at the failure date.

The service record history shows what maintenance was done and when. This information, however, might not be complete if an owner worked on the car themselves or took it to an independent garage that did not record what was done. Nonetheless, it can give a good baseline as to the car’s general reliability and upkeep.

Fun Fact:

If you buy a car with a clean Carfax but later learn that there was an issue in the car’s history recorded by the DMV but not picked up by the report, you’re entitled to a buyback guarantee. Carfax will buy the car from you for the full purchase price.