TRACKING PREVIOUS OWNERS

[William]

Coppers generally need a reason to run a VIN. Later on somebody may ask why they ran it and if the car was ever stolen, could be trouble. All they will able to get is current info. NCIC is no longer easily accessed either.

Nothing ventured nothing gained but owner history is no longer easy to acquire. No one keeps records 40 years.

[resto4u]

There are ways around the privacy act, but it is a grey area of the law.

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

This is true as each state adopted the Privacy Act differently. Some essentially 'shut down', while others simply ask for a notarized form or they will cross out the personal info on their response. It all depends on the state.

I'm pretty sure that all states have the info, and they keep it on microfiche or other electronic media. It all comes down to 'who is asking', and if they warrant the extra work to retrieve the info. If there was a federal indictment involved, trust me - the info would be found.

There are some cases where the state will reply that the records have been lost - PA for example claims to have lost the records for early 1969. I'm not sure what to believe then, but I trust that since they took the trouble to reply - and kept the money - that they indeed searched.

[bergy]

Actually, I believe that it was the flood from hurricane Agnes that wiped out some of the PA records in Harrisburg. Gotta look at the title sequence numbers. For example, if you get back to the "01" sequence number for an original PA car - you've got the first ownership period no matter what the transaction date is. Sorry to delve into minutia, but it's important if you want to establish continuous history.

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: bergy</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Actually, I believe that it was the flood from hurricane Agnes that wiped out some of the PA records in Harrisburg. Gotta look at the title sequence numbers. For example, if you get back to the &quot;01&quot; sequence number for an original PA car - you've got the first ownership period no matter what the transaction date is. Sorry to delve into minutia, but it's important if you want to establish continuous history. </div></div>

No apologies! The minutia can provide the most significant clues, and I have heard that Agnes took the early '69 records - bummer. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/frown.gif[/img]

Explain the &quot;01&quot; sequence number for the folks:

[bergy]

Sure - PA titles all have a 13 charactor title number on them. The first 9 charactors are numbers that are specific to that car. These 9 digits remain the same on every succeeding title that is issued for that vehicle. Digits # 11 &amp; 12 represent the title sequence number - they tell you how many total PA titles have been issued for that vehicle. the final two charactors are letters that represent the first two letters of the title holder's last name. It's important to remember that the sequence number does not necessarily represent the number of owners of a vehicle. Sequence numbers are advanced every time a title is re-issued due to a change. For example - placing a lien on a car due to financing results in a title change; name changes (due to marriage) results in a title change; etc. One car that I researched had 21 title sequences, but only 11 owners.

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

So, when people refer to their car as having an 'A' or 'B' title it is not necessarily a 1 or 2 owner car?

Additionally, if a car is repo'd - I assume that would drive a title change too?

[bergy]

&quot;A&quot; (or &quot;01&quot title is a one owner. &quot;B&quot; (or &quot;02&quot could also be a one owner. If a finance company repo'd a car, they would probably already have a branded title in their files.