DEKRA Survey: Polish car buyers rely on CARFAX

Three quarters of all buyers want to have the technical condition of a used car checked before they buy it

(MUNICH, March 23rd 2021) Poland has one of the most active used car markets in Europe, with almost two million changes of ownership every year and a total of around 24 million vehicles on Polish roads. The audit company DEKRA asked Polish motorists what they would like to check before buying a used car. Among the top 10 answers: used car histories from CARFAX. DEKRA asked survey participants what things they would check before buying a used car. The top 10 answers:

• The actual mileage of the car

• Its accident-free condition

• The steering linkage and idling of the steering wheel

• Efficiency and uniformity of braking force

• Wheel geometry

• Toxicity of exhaust fumes

• The originality of the set of windows

• The tightness of the oil sump and the gearbox casing

• The report on the car's service history in the CARFAX system

• The photographic documentation of the inspection of the vehicle.

Participants explicitly mentioned CARFAX's used car histories. CARFAX has the world's largest database of used car histories, with more than 28 billion entries on more than 300 million European and 700 million North American vehicles available. For an importing country like Poland, which imports about a million vehicles a year from Europe and North America, such a service is essential before buying a used car.

Despite the high number of ownership changes, the trust of Polish car buyers in sellers is low. This is mainly due to a used car market that is becoming increasingly professional, e.g. with car deliveries to the doorstep and money-back guarantees, but still has many black sheep in its ranks. Especially with warranties and mileage, there is a lot of trickery. As a car-importing country where half of all vehicles are imported, the risk of fraud is particularly high. This is because it’s largely imported vehicles for which the odometer reading is turned back by several hundred thousand kilometers to get below the magic limit of 200,000km.

With used car histories buyers can, given the appropriate data, gain a detailed insight into the life of a vehicle and, among other things, identify previous damage, alternative uses or mileage manipulation at an early stage. Car buyers thus not only save a lot of money, but also protect themselves from substandard and unroadworthy vehicles.