Hybridbird said:
The only difference between a Mustang airbag and a Cobra airbag is the lettering.Everyone wants to charge a $%^& arm and a leg for the ones that say Cobra on them,so when I changed my wife's interior from shittytan to black it got got the Running Pony airbag.She (or I) don't need the letters on the bag to know if it's a Cobra or not.I say long as the carfax is clean,good deal bro!
this is true. but at the same time, you as the buyer also just cant assume that EVERYTHING that happened to the car was made record of. theres way too many instances to count, where a car will go through a wreck and be repaired (especially if the owner did all the work), and never have it reported... meaning it will never show up on a carfax.
there's plenty of things to look for when looking for signs of previous damage, when you notice something as simple as a mismatched airbag cover. just off the bat, you can tell if the car was rear-ended if you have spot-weld points in the trunk, and/or if the trunk (under the bedliner) has an "accordion" look to it.
a lot of owners will be much faster to tell you when someone else hit their car, as opposed to when THEY hit something or someone else's car (its not exactly a great selling point when youre trying to convince a potential buyer that you take good care of the car, meanwhile youre out wrecking it)... and a lot of people will try to hide it, regardless of if it was their fault or not, and whether or not they are physically hiding it or just not telling you about it. i would say at least 90% of all privately sold used cars have at least 1 problem wrong with them that the owner is reluctant to tell the buyer about, to either get that extra penny, or just sell the car all-together.
it all boils down to, even the most honest people are always "coached" to not give out any more information than need-be, or at least not any information that isnt gonna find a way to bite you in the ass down the road. unless this guy that youre getting the car from is a close relative, no matter how much you trust him, i still wouldnt ASSUME that the air bag cover was just replace for "whatever stupid reason"... or unless you know first hand why its not the original part.
my carfax came back clean as a whistle, but off the top of my head, i know that of many other things, my one fender's paint is a different shade than the rest of the car. why would i just assume that it was only scratched or faded, and not that the car was hit (bumped?) from the side? just because the carfax says it was never in an accident?
id only ever use Carfax as an AIDE, not a source to depend on.
