Car History Check

Before you buy a used car, be sure to have it checked out thoroughly by a competent, independent mechanic.  If the lot owner will not let your mechanic look at the car, go somewhere else.

You can also get a vehicle history reports from Carfax or AutoCheck, but Consumer Reports recently discovered the services do not always show accidents.

For that reason C.R. suggested looking at several different car reporting services, including National Motor Vehicle Title Information Systems at www.nmvtis.org.  The report is $2.50.

You can also get a free report from the National Insurance Crime Bureau at https://www.nicb.org/cps/rde/xchg/nicb/hs.xsl/vincheck.html.  The report generated here are free.