A customer is calling out CarMax on TikTok after claiming that the company lied about his car’s accident history.
According to user Landon Jones (@allclearforlandon), he had previously purchased a car from CarMax, which he now decided to sell. At the time he purchased the car, he says he was told the car had not been in any accidents.
To sell his car, he decided to get it appraised at Honda, where they were handed a CARFAX report revealing an undisclosed accident involving their vehicle.
“I was never told that my car had been into an accident when I bought my car,” Jones says. “When I bought my car, they said that it was clean—like, there was nothing wrong with it, no damage had been reported, nothing.”
Seeing this, Jones went back to his purchase documents to verify whether he had been told that his car was in an accident. He eventually found his AutoCheck report, which had no mention of accidents or damage.
This inconsistency left Jones feeling deceived and questioning the legality of his situation.
“I feel like this isn’t legal,” he states. “If I had known my car had been into an accident, I would have been very hesitant to buy it.”
Jones ends his video with a warning to those considering purchasing a car from the company: “If you’re buying a car from CarMax, you should maybe watch out for sh*t like this,” he declares.
He isn’t the first to make such a claim. Several Redditors have reported significant discrepancies between their AutoCheck and CARFAX reports.
“My girlfriend bought a car that looked great on AutoCheck but, after the sell, we found it had SEVERE DAMAGE on the CarFax report,” claimed a user in one post. “Multiple panels refinished or replaced. Even the roof!”
“I’ve bought a vehicle or two over the years with a ‘clean carfax’ when I could clearly see the repair work from an accident,” alleged a different poster. “None of these reports are going to be 100% accurate.”
In general, many say that Carfax offers more information than AutoCheck, though the former is more expensive than the latter.
@allclearforlandon @CarMax whats goin on here friends? #fyp #car ♬ original sound – Landon Jones
In the comments section of Jones’ video, users offered their thoughts on his situation, with many debating how concerned Jones should be about the missing information.
“Just cause it says clean doesn’t mean they did an insurance report,” said a user. “The only real thing you should be concerned about is frame damage suspension damage but if it had a new bumper it will say accident.”
“Autocheck reports sometimes are missing accidents. A dealership I worked at had an issue once with a car that autocheck showed nothing but carfax showed a major damage and we ended up arbitrating the vehicle because we wouldn’t sell it,” recalled another.
“Worked for Carmax, be careful buying from there!! I was the one who walked vehicles and discovered damage hidden and you would have never known that the car had damage by looking at the outside,” stated a third. “checking seals and checking behind panels will tell you the real story of the car.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Jones via Instagram direct message, and to AutoCheck, CARFAX, and CarMax via email.
Update 10:41am CT Feb. 8: In an email to the Daily Dot, a CarMax spokesperson shared the following:
“CarMax provides a free AutoCheck Vehicle History Report for every retail vehicle we sell. Each AutoCheck report states that not all accidents are reported to AutoCheck, which CarMax provides to all customers at the time of sale. It should be noted that CarMax is not affiliated with AutoCheck, and therefore, we cannot and do not guarantee the accuracy of the information contained in the AutoCheck report.”
