No More Lemons for Used Car Buyers

When you shop for a used car, it can be like venturing into unknown territory, not knowing the history of the car or whether it’s been in accident.

Now, a new National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS) lets car buyers type in a Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) to quickly check a car’s title, odometer reading and other details about its previous life.

Car sellers have plenty of incentive to rebuild a wreck on the cheap and then sell it to unsuspecting buyers for more than the car’s worth. A quick or shoddy repair job can also endanger the safety of drivers who are unaware they’ve just purchased a totaled or salvaged car that was sold at auction and then rebuilt improperly.

According to an MSNBC story, 37 states are now participating in the NMVTIS database. Three states ⎯ California, New York and Pennsylvania ⎯ contribute to the database but don’t permit residents to access it. “Critics say these states don’t want to lose the millions of dollars they now make from selling this data to private companies like CarFax and AutoCheck,” MSNBC reported.

I’m going to type in my car’s VIN number and see what comes up.

Tags: checking used car history, used car history, used cars

This entry is filed under Personal Finances. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.