[RichSchmidt]

We have gone down this road many times before.The issue is that it defies legal logic that an automobile can be recreated using all replacement or donor parts and the job would actually cost less then what the car is worth.Basically a car is totalled when it cost more to fix then it is worth,so the state issues a salvage title so that the VIN can't just be swapped to a stolen body since stealing another car would be the only way to fix a totaled car for less then the cost of simply buying another car.

In the collector car world,things get fuzzy.While a $250,000 car can techanically be totally destroyed,the car itself is almost no different then thousands of $10,000 cars that still exist,so it is possible that someone could fix a destroyed $250k car by using a body from a $10k car and swapping the VIN and related parts.This defies logic to the legal world since what we are really saying is that it is the VIN number and not the actually metal of the car that makes it worth so much.When this happens,it just makes sense that these valubale VINs are being kept in working order by being transported around by new body shells.

Forgeries are rampant in the collector world.Coins,Hummels,stamps,guns,war stuff.It is all illegal.The fact that car restorers can forge a valuable car by using the body of a less valuebale car is like saying I can recreate loads of super rare coins by taking coins of a similar vintage and restamping them in my bogus stamping machine.

A rebody is illegal for a different reason then just the federal laws pertaining to VIN numbers,it is illegal because what is touted as a mint condition collectable is actually a counterfiet.That constitute fraud regardless of where the VIN tag came from.

As long as VIN numbers and not the condition of the vehicle determine value the old VIN swithceroo fraud will be a battle.