Hopefully in the not-too-distant future you will be able to get all the same information that Carfax sells you for $2.50 from Uncle Sam. I say hopefully because there are a number of forces conspiring to prevent it.
The Anti-Car Theft Act (the Act) of 1992 directed the U.S. Department of Transportation to establish a national information system enabling states and others to access automobile titling information. In 1996, the Act was reauthorized, transferring the responsibility for this system to the the U.S. Department of Justice, but DOJ fought it and delayed things until last March when due to a number of fabulous consumer rights organinizations bringing a lawsuit, a federal judge ordered DOJ to establish the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS).
While the site is up and running, it is of little value because the States of California, Pennsylvania and New York are blocking the release of their data. Why? Right now the states sell the data to Carfax and others, if they have to give the data to Uncle Sam for free, they will lose out on all that money. (Apparently NY gets about $3 million a year and PA gets about $1 million, you can guess that CA is likely near $5 million) Nothing like putting consumer safety second to some pocket change.
Nick Slade is a consumer rights lawyer, and will be posting at Caveat Emptor until 12.2.2009.
If you are in Minnesota, contact The Glover Law Firm, LLC, for a free case evaluation. In any other state, you can find a consumer rights lawyer using the National Association of Consumer Advocates lawyer database.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Consumer safty my rear, if a person wants to fork over the money for a car fax report, then they should. The government is no doubt running this program at a loss. I see this as government interference into the private sector.
Your comment raises two issues, one how should the government make public records accessible to the public? Two, if the government has information in its control that would assist consumers avoid harm including death and counter fraud in the market place, should they?
To the first, I think that the government as the servant of the people should make the information available as easily as possible, we already have paid for its collection. The information is all electronic. The problem is that right now the state governments and the insurance industry are willing to sell to Carfax and other organizations information that it doesn’t make easily available to the public, if it is available at all. The requirement is simply that each of the states and the insurance industry push the information to a central computer regularly so that we the people can than access it.
To the second, this is something of a no brainer I believe. As they say sunshine is the best disinfectant. Fraud in car sales has been around since horsepower was actually horses, but now as my post various posts especially on airbag fraud, indicate there are very serious safety issues involved. Besides airbags, many of the safety features of cars these days such as “crumple zones” are based on sophisticated engineering and construction that after being damaged may not be able to be repaired to provide the same level of protection. Do you want your 16 year old daughter driving around in a car that you think is safe, when in reality it has no airbags and the front is actually from a different car and is held on by some Bondo and a few spot welds?
The other problem that you seemed to have missed as it was raised in a differant post is that Carfax actually is missing a lot of information, that Uncle Sam is trying to make part of its data base, namely information that is kept by the insurance industry. If anyone is a criminal here it is the insurance industry which has a very real incentive to avoid disclosing and branding, because it allows them to sell the wrecks at a higher price. Yes it may result in a payout in the future due to somebody being killed or injured, but that is only a possibility and it is in the future and may be a different carrier, so for them now it makes more cents.
Great posts by the way! Would there be any chance you can tell me where the best place to start purchasing car history data in Canada. Basically the main source. For example the people that Carfax buy there information from.
Thanks
Thanks for the comment. Unfortunately, I don’t know anything at all about the Canadian title registration system. I would suggest trying to locate a solicitor who specializes in consumer issues also look at some of the web sites with used car buying guides for Canada. If you can figure out who run the site or who wrote the guide it might be worth talking with them
I don’t want the states, insurance companies, repair shops, or anyone else giving or selling data on my vehicles to Carfax or anyone else without my permission. If anyone should get paid for the information, it should be me.
The problem is that you or some other owner may not give that information to the next person to own the car, or the next, or the next.