From my carfax report, unless it was wrong, it showed the last owner to have only owned the car for three months . During this time it was driven 40,000 miles . I also have sand in my carpet in the floors and hatchback and an odd smell. Any Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys out there?
The previous owner was so in love with driving the Prius, that they drove it to the beach EVERY DAY... ... or, carfax missed an owner, huh?
It was raced in the Baja Dunes Off Road Endurance Rally by a team of 3 drivers who kept moving continuously for the whole three months. Also, CarFax is CRAP. It only makes money for CarFax to reward them for their marketing deceptions. It will only report damage that was reported to DMV, which is pretty much only Total Losses or Salvage Titles. If it had $18,000 worth of body work because the cheep insurance company didn't want to pay $22,000 for a new car, I doubt it will ever show on up on CarFax. I bought a 2001 Toyota Corrola with 53,000 miles on it for my son and the dealer offered the CarFax Report which claimed no prior damage. Then when I went to my insurance company, they wanted to charge me a higher rate because they had records of it having been repaired two times for about $3500 each time. The insurance company has a database calle Clue Reports. If you have a friend who is an agent that can check the Clur Report for you, it is more reliable than CarFax becuase it keep track of all prior insurance claims. Frankly, the insurance companies are missing the boat as they could sell that information, marketing it as superior to CarFax and use the profit to raise executive salaries, er I mean to lower our insurance rates.
Was it used to circumnavigate the continent mostly on beaches in some sort of record attempt? Or a sea front taxi for surfers?
Katrina?. CarFax doesn't tell all. I know leased cars that have there odometer turned back or disconncted for thousands of miles and it'll never be detected because the car was never returned to the dealer for service and the oilchanges were done by the owner. Or, the rolebacks were done between dealer visits, but with higher mileage than the previous visit. Any ECU fault codes can be reset at PepBoys/Autozone parts stores.
I think you are all right. Let me see, it was driven around the US via the coast on the beach in a baja race sponsored by Carfax and driven by someone named Katrina. On occasion to break up the boredom she gave rides to surfers. I have a special car. I think I'll name it Herbie ; I also think I'll take it to the dealership and have them give it a physical-just to be on the safe side. The good news is I am getting between 45-50 mpg's right now. This tank if 3/4 gone and I am at 49.7!