Carfax (company)

Carfax, Inc.

Company logo.
Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Information Technology Services
Founded	1984; 33 years ago (1984) Columbia, Missouri, U.S.
Founders	Ewin Barnett III Robert Daniel Clark
Headquarters	Centreville, Virginia, U.S.
Key people	Richard Raines
Products	Vehicle history reports
Number of employees	500 - 750 (estimated)
Parent	IHS
Website	carfax.com

Carfax, Inc. is a commercial web-based service that supplies vehicle history reports to individuals and businesses on used cars and light trucks for the American and Canadian consumers.

In 1984 Carfax was founded in Columbia, Missouri, by a computer professional named Ewin Barnett III working with Robert Daniel Clark, an accountant from Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. The company is now headquartered in Centreville, Virginia, with a data center operation in Columbia. Barnett was initially trying to combat odometer fraud. By working closely with the Missouri Automobile Dealers Association, in 1986 he offered the early version Carfax vehicle history report to the dealer market. These reports were developed with a database of just 10,000 records and were distributed via fax machine. By the end of 1993, Carfax obtained title information from nearly all fifty states. In December 1996, the company's website was launched to offer consumers the same vehicle history reports already available to businesses. In the fall of 1999, Carfax became a wholly owned subsidiary of R.L. Polk & Company. In 2013, IHS acquired Polk and Carfax, which added to its Automotive offerings. In 2013 Carfax introduced a free service to help vehicle owners keep their cars well maintained – myCARFAX. Car owners can track their service history, receive automatic service alerts and get critical information about open safety recalls reported for their car.

Carfax offers several free products and services and charges a fee for more comprehensive reports.

In 2013, Carfax launched a new free service called myCARFAX. The service provides free access to vehicle service information reported to the company and alerts users to recommended maintenance.

The company offers four vehicle research services—Lemon Check, Record Check, Recall Check, and Problem Car. While these services are helpful, they do not contain all of the information provided in a full Carfax vehicle history report.