WASHINGTON — Centreville, Virginia-based Carfax, used by auto dealers and used-car buyers to find out a used vehicle’s history, said it now has 20 billion records in its database.
The 20-billionth record loaded into the Carfax database was an accident reported in Tennessee involving a 2010 Toyota Prius.
Carfax draws data from more than 112,000 domestic and international sources that report vehicle information.
“The amount of information loaded daily into our database and how quickly it reaches the next billion mark is astounding,” said Dick Raines, president of Carfax.
“What once took us 15 years to accomplish now happens every five months,” he said.
All of that data comes from a broad swath of Department of Motor Vehicle records and businesses that come in contact with a vehicle. Sources include service shops, police departments, auto auctions, insurance companies and U.S. and Canadian motor vehicle agencies.
Carfax said it handles more than 2.7 million requests for vehicle history information every day.
The company, which has been based in Fairfax County for 23 years, is also growing.
In 2016 it began a $5 million headquarters expansion that included adding more than 100 jobs to its 300 person local workforce.
Carfax is owned by London-based IHS Markit Ltd.
