After years of wrangling and and lawsuits to force federal bureaucrats to do what Congress told them to do long ago, there is now an online database where consumers can go to get wrecked car records filed by insurance companies, junk yards, salvage yards and others.
A new web site now makes stolen car and wrecked car records publicly available so consumers can avoid buying patched up junk cars and trucks anywhere in the county. Ohio is one of 13 states leading the nation in using the new data to help protect consumers by reporting data and checking it before issuing vehicle titles.
While an estimated 73% of all US vehicles are reportedly in the database, 24 states still are not fully cooperating with the wrecked car record-keeping.
14 states are not participating while 10 more say they are "in development" but federal law requires full participation by 2010. Until then, you still can't be sure if that great looking used car was totaled in an accident Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Oregon, Washingto DC or 9 other states that are not telling the truth about their records. You can see the full list above and check car records here: http://www.nmvtis.gov/
It is unbelievable that California, New York and Pennsylvania are providing wrecked car data to the federal government but have blocked the government's ability to release that data to consumers. If you live in one of those three states, write your state governor and ask why they want to keep it secret. Some media reports say private record-keeping companies are paying those states big money to sell the data privately to them so they can keep charging consumers to see the stolen car and wrecked car records before buying a used car in those and other states.
What bragging US officials are slow to admit is that it took public interest group lawsuits to get them moving to comply with long-existing federal law that ordered the creation of the wrecked and stolen car database years ago. In fact Nova Scotia created a similar database with its records in June 2000 and made them available to all provinces to fight theft and consumer fraud. The US database goes one step further by putting access to the records on the internet.
The need for public access to the records is clear and with some 300 million vehicles whose history is now publicly available in one location, consumers can be far more certain of the prior history of the used cars in the marketplace before they put down their hard earned money.
Still, a lot of wrecked and stolen cars and trucks are not in the system yet and a lot more are in the system but access to their records are still being blocked.
If you end up being ripped off by a car dealer who sold you a car that had been wrecked without telling you all about it, contact us. We can help. It's what we do.
You can find out more about the dangers of wrecked cars by clicking here: http://www.ohiolemonlaw.com/wrecked-car-ripoff.html.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Known nationwide as a leading Lemon Law attorney, Ronald L. Burdge has represented literally thousands of consumers in "lemon" lawsuits and actively co-counsels and coaches other Consumer Law attorneys. From 2005 through 2018, attorney Ronald L. Burdge has been named as the only Lemon Law Ohio Super Lawyer by Law and Politics magazine and Thomson Reuters Corp., Professional Division. Burdge restricts his practice to Lemon Law and Consumer Law cases. The Ohio Super Lawyer results are published annually in the January issue of Cincinnati Magazine. Ronald L. Burdge was named Consumer Law Trial Lawyer of the Year 2004 by the National Association of Consumer Advocates, the nation's largest organization of consumer law private and government attorneys. "Your impact on the auto industry has been magnified many times over because of the trail you blazed for others," stated NACA's Executive Director, Will Ogburn. Burdge has represented thousands of consumers in Ohio, Kentucky and elsewhere since 1978 and is a frequent lecturer to national, state and local Bar Associations and Judicial organizations. Burdge is admitted to Ohio's state and federal courts, Kentucky's state courts, and Indiana's federal courts. Other court admissions are on a "pro hac" temporary, case by cases basis.