The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) has joined a diverse
coalition of consumer protection, law enforcement and auto industry
representatives to urge the U.S. Department of Justice to finalize a
critical rulemaking to help prevent rebuilt, wrecked, flooded or stolen
vehicles from unknowingly ending up on a consumer’s driveway.

Each year, millions of vehicles are totaled, and many of them are
refurbished and return to the road with no record of the vehicle’s
severe damage. In an effort to benefit all used car buyers by reducing
vehicle title fraud, Congress passed legislation in 1992 creating a
national information system to link state DMVs electronically and to
mandate that insurers and salvage yards report the VINs of junk and
salvage vehicles to the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System
(NMVTIS).

In a May 20 letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, NADA, consumer
protection organizations, law enforcement and auto industry
representatives strongly urged that the Justice Department make the
NMVTIS rulemaking a priority by finalizing the necessary regulations to
implement the insurance and salvage yard VIN disclosure requirements
under the Anti-Car Theft Act as soon as possible.

In addition, the letter urges the Justice Department to make the NMVTIS
data readily accessible to the public (via Web site or similar
electronic media) without waiting for the rulemaking to occur.

"The auto industry and consumer advocates share the same goal of
ensuring that salvage vehicle reporting requirements are enforced under
the law," said Ivette Rivera, executive director of legislative affairs
for NADA. "NMVTIS presents an important opportunity to track
potentially dangerous salvage vehicles – whether it’s keeping a problem
vehicle off a dealer’s lot or helping consumers spot a severely damaged
vehicle."

The Justice Department has failed to meet the Congressional deadline of
January 1998 for implementing the rules for the NMVTIS database.
Consequently, vehicle salvage fraud, title-washing and VIN cloning
(switching the VIN of a stolen car with the VIN of a similar make and
model) continues to plague used car buyers.

NADA, founded in 1917 and based in McLean, Va., represents about 20,000
new-car and truck dealers with nearly 43,000 separate franchises, both
domestic and import. For more information, visit www.nada.com.