A new database will be launched Friday allowing consumers a place to search out whether a used car they are thinking of purchasing has been in a wreck and rebuil, had fire and been repaired, been stolen or other information.
A federal database that will allow car buyers to learn whether a vehicle has been stolen or rebuilt after a wreck will be launched on Friday – more than 16 years after Congress passed a law requiring its creation, and a year after three safety groups sued the federal government to force it to act.
This database goes online January 30 in large part to a lawsuit brought by Public Citizen and two other consumer groups. However, it appears there are still more than a dozen states that are refusing to comply which leaves the database incomplete.
Last year, Public Citizen, joined by Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety (CARS) and Consumer Action, sued the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in federal court in San Francisco, asking the court to order the government to implement the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System. In September, the court told the DOJ it had until Jan. 30 to make the information available on the Internet and to issue a rule requiring states, insurance companies and junk yards to report safety information.
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