Last year bought a clean LS430 (2005). Got Carfax from dealer (not a Lexus dealer) and it showed car had been maintained regularly at a Lexus dealer in another city. Not a lot of mileage shown on dates, but looked good enough for me to buy.

Yesterday went to My Lexus, entered the VIN and came up with eight (!) pages of service records. Car had been completely maintained, going to dealer every 3-5k for service. None of this listed on Carfax. Conversely, none of the service done at the other dealer was listed on the Lexus site.

Anybody got any ideas on this??

 

Yep. First congrats on the car. The My Lexus site, while an awesome tool for Lexus owners, is only as good as the info put in by the Lexus service department. Conversely, Carfax only enters information given. There is a gray area in between where some things are left out for a reason. For instance, if the owner had a small fender bender, didn't claim insurance, and had it fixed on the side, it most likely wasn't reported to either service.

Once I signed in to My Lexus, I make add on info to the site on things I have done not related to taking it to Lexus. For instance, when I took my car to AutoZone to replace the battery, I later went to My Lexus and made the entry. Now any future owner can see not only what the Lexus service department did, but what I did as well.

 

The only thing I would rely on CarFax is for really basic info like any accident history or how many owners. It can also be useful to see if the odometer is correct as often times when a car goes in for emissions the mileage is recorded. Even then, CarFax is a crap shoot but it's probably worthwhile for what it costs on a major investment like a car.

But it's not really a tool for finding out how a car has been taken care of and its service history. I don't think ANY of the CarFaxes I've ever gotten had anything about car maintenance.

 

My recent purchase did not show anything on the Carfax with regards to maintenance. I don't believe that it is supposed to either. It might just show that the VIN has been used/looked up in some way or another. I did go here and create an account and ran the VIN: https://secure.drivers.lexus.com/lexusdrivers/home.do. It had all the maintenance on the LS430 I bought, up until 1,000 miles before purchasing it.

 

RZ:

Thought the My Lexus site said it wouldn't pass along anything added by present owner to future owners. Correct me if I'm wrong-and thanks for your input!

 

All of the service that has been done through a Lexus dealership will show up in myLexus. There's usually not a ton of detail but it helps. Some dealers will disclose the work they have done, others won't. When I bought my UL last year, the dealership sent me a very detailed report of the work done on the car. My LS400 the dealer (a different one) wouldn't give me any details at all.