If a new car repaired by the dealership before sale it should not generate a Carfax report. Bumps and bruises on new cars are common and commonly repaired. Still there’s the offer of a $4500 discount so it may be more than simply a bumper. I think Tesla has been sued over nondisclosed repairs on new cars that were discovered later so this may be in response to that.
If Carfax does list the car as damaged and repaired, they tend to list it as a collision. They used to, anyway, I’ve got no idea if that’s still the case. They are nonresponsive to correcting their data and you can expect a Carfax report of a collision to significantly decrease the value of the car In a private sale. Carfax is in the business of selling Carfax reports and not in the business of correcting information. Carfax will not disclose the sources their information so they remain cloaked in secrecy,
Generally what Tesla does is to replace all parts damaged, they disassemble the car until they’re down to the undamaged car then replace all the parts to rebuild it. That’s information that’s a few years old. Anyway I think the car will be fine. If there’s a Carfax report, you’ll be screwed by the diminished value. The trouble is that people commonly check the Carfax before buying a used car, and most tend to just skip any used car that has a Carfax report of collision damage.
If you are going to keep this car forever and drive it until the wheels fall off, this won’t be an issue. If you plan to trade in the car on a new Tesla, it’ll likely not be much of an issue. If you plan to sell privately, then you can expect an adverse Carfax to diminish the value whether or not the actual damage and repair resulted in a diminished car.
I had a BMW convertible. It was pristeen. I’d visited the factory in Germany, ordered the car, followed it on the ships and took delivery quickly after it was delivered. It was spotless and that’s the way I kept it. That was until some cretin parked next to it, parked where he had no business parking. He’d park, go inside to punch in, then move his old ratty pickup truck 50 feet or so to the parking to which he was entitled. Trouble was it was an early morning, I’d been working all night. It wasn’t light yet so in that 1-2 minutes, he forgot he’d parked next to my BMW. He didn’t see the black top so cranked over his wheel and creased the side of my car. I used a body shop that specialized in modifying cars. They even tested their sprayers to exactly match the factory orange peel in the paint. They did an absolutely superb job. That car was perfect. Even though it was unoccupied at the time of damage, Carfax listed it as damaged in a collision. I took it in the shorts when I sold that car. It went to a BMW enthusiast, a person who was very happy when later told by experts they couldn’t believe it was ever damaged. So do I like Carfax? Nope. I think they’re a nasty little company. They won’t correct data, they won’t change their reports in any way, they’ll just hang their expensive curse on every car they can. The actual Carfax report may not show up for a while so you cannot depend on lack of the Carfax as a guarantee that Carfax won’t hang the ”collision damage” curse on your car later. Be careful if you buy this car. That $4500 is significant and may make this well worthwhile.
As an aside, I read that Carfax will reporting car maintenance. Some of us do that ourselves. I can’t wait to see what Carfax will do there. Whatever it is, I suspect it will be bad for car owners.
You might seek opinions from others. Perhaps you’ll find differing opinions. Perhaps you’ll find Carfax has become a warm responsive company interested in correcting their records and reporting accurately. I wouldn’t bet on it. As for me, I’ll go to my grave despising that miserable little company.
