Congress should create a federal database to track the estimated 600,000 vehicles damaged by Hurricane Katrina to prevent them from being sold to unsuspecting consumers David Regan, NADA vice president of legislative affairs, told a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee last week.
Regan called on insurance companies and state titling agencies to provide consumers access to VIN-based data before they buy used cars.
Congress already has granted the Department of Justice the authority to make insurance companies disclose total-loss data and salvage auction data, and Congress should press the DOJ to act because “an accurate and publicly accessible total-loss database would curb fraudulent activity dramatically,” Regan said.
NADA also called for:
[I]. Greater transparency[/I]: “All states should carry forward prior brands when issuing new titles. States should brand registrations as well as titles.” [I]. More timeliness[/I]: “The insurance companies should disclose total-loss data at the time the total-loss payout occurs. Also, state DMVs should work with the private sector to push title data into the public domain faster.” [I]. Better use of technology[/I]: “DMVs should make title data commercially available on a daily basis to the information industry, [which] has the technology to dramatically enhance public disclosure of insurance company information about total-loss vehicles and salvage auction sales data.”Regan said the combination of electronic access to total-loss data and faster access to DMV data will enable consumers and dealers to fight motor vehicle fraud.
With an estimated 600,000 vehicles damaged by Katrina and thousands already refurbished and sold to consumers in recent months, Rachel Weintraub, director of product safety and senior counsel for the Consumer Federation of America, testified that Consumers have no reliable way to know the true history of these cars.
But the problem is not limited to Katrina vehicles, said Regan, who pointed out that an estimated 5 million vehicles were deemed totaled by insurance companies last year.
Legislation dealing with car thefts in 1992 created a national online motor vehicle title history system, but only about 28 states participate because of financing issues, said Glenn D. Turner, Florida Division of Motor Vehicles.
WANADA and VADA are represented on an NADA Title Fraud Committee which Regan coordinates.
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