Judge Orders Wrecked & Stolen Car Database Made Public
Sixteen years ago, Congress enacted a statute requiring the federal government to
implement the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS), a single
database that would provide public access to vehicle-history information gathered from
states, insurance companies, and junk and salvage yards. Before purchasing a potentially
dangerous used car, a consumer using the database would be able to instantly check the
validity of the vehicle’s title, verify its mileage, and learn whether it had been stolen or
deemed a junk or salvage vehicle. Congress viewed the database as an important solution
to the problems of auto theft, auto fraud, and the dangers associated with unsafe and
unreliable vehicles, and set a deadline of January 31, 1997, for establishment of the system.
After a 16-year wait, in an emphatic victory for consumers, on September 22, 2008, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel of the Northern District of California ordered the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to make this information available to consumers by the end of January 2009.
Public Citizen, Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, and Consumer Action brought the lawsuit against the DOJ saying that the agency’s unlawful delay in implementing the database was putting consumers at risk.
In a press release, Public Citizen said that when Congress passed a law in 1992 calling for the database, no one expected it to take this long to deliver such critical information to consumers. During that time, countless people have unwittingly purchased rebuilt or stolen vehicles.
