45,000 Miles in 3 Years, Then Just 800 in the Next 2

I bought a used Subaru Outback and something about the mileage did not sit right. 45,000 miles in the first three years, then barely 800 in the next two. The history reports, Carfax and Autocheck, had nothing to say about the gap. So I went digging.

The more I looked, the less I trusted the reports. When I pulled records on cars I had actually owned, they were missing service visits and even accidents I knew had happened. These reports present themselves as the final word on a car. They are not. This is about what they leave out, and why the person buying the car is the one who has to do the real work.