CARCHEX began in 2001 as a national provider of mobile pre-purchase vehicle inspections. In 2003, Jason Goldsmith, the current CEO of CARCHEX was looking for a 1996 Jaguar XJS V12 convertible. Jason had always loved the Jaguar XJS but wanted to be careful to pick the right car in the right condition at the right price.

To begin his search Jason went onto eBay and searched for the Jaguar. One of the results yielded what he believed to be the perfect car in a dealership in Portland. However, Jason was skeptical about the seller's description of the vehicle but didn't want to fly across the country from Baltimore to Portland just to check out the car. So Jason went to Google and typed in "pre-purchase auto inspection Portland Oregon." One of the first results was a company called CARCHEX. Jason clicked through to the CARCHEX website. He had never heard of CARCHEX at the time so he called the phone number listed on the site. He spoke with a CARCHEX representative and they said "we can inspect that car for you and we can get it done within 48 Hours." CARCHEX actually got the results back to Jason within 24 hours. Jason was impressed. He also learned the car had been in an accident and that it had been repainted among other issues. He determined that the asking price for the car was too high and he moved on to look for another Jaguar. Jason repeated the process several more times with other cars but as he was going through the process he quickly realized just how valuable a service like CARCHEX is to consumers.

Jason had been protected from a bad buying situation five times from this service as he looked for the Jaguar. He knew others could really benefit from CARCHEX if they only knew that there was a service like this out there. His next thought was, I want to buy this company and make others aware of the benefits. So he did, in April of 2003 Jason purchased CARCHEX and over the past several years CARCHEX has established itself as a leading consumer advocate helping protect consumers and level the playing field between car buyers and sellers.

In 2004 CARCHEX added a second consumer assurance product to its business, Vehicle Service Contracts (VSC) also known as extended warranties. CARCHEX is now one of the largest and most trusted names in the VSC industry offering competing products direct to consumers from the top rated VSC administrators and insurers available.

Although CARCHEX has helped protect thousands of customers through its inspection and VSC services Jason believed there was much more CARCHEX could do to help insure happiness and success when buying a new or used vehicle. Thus in 2007 CARCHEX launched the one of a kind consumer guide known as The CARCHEX Advantage™.

The CARCHEX Advantage™ is a step-by-step guide that will help ensure that consumers have a safe, smart, & successful automotive purchase. Whether you are buying a new or used vehicle, from a dealer or private seller, our car buying experts are here to help. Our web tools are available 24/7 & car experts are available via live chat or phone to answer any questions you may have along the way. Our mission is to ensure that before, during & after you buy a vehicle you're informed, protected and most importantly, happy about your vehicle purchase. Best of all our CARCHEX Advantage™ service is FREE! Click here to get your FREE CARCHEX Advantage account.

The CARCHEX mission has always been to offer the best protective services either directly through CARCHEX or through trusted industry partners and dealers in order to provide a successful automotive purchase. We will continue to add tools and resources to further our mission. If you have any comments that you believe would be helpful to our mission please feel free to email us a yourideas@carchex.com.