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Lawsuit seeks to save car title database - and protect car buyers.

Article Excerpt
Sixteen years after Congress enacted the Anti Car Theft Act of 1992, which called for the creation of a national database to track motor vehicle titles and prevent the fraudulent retitling of wrecked and stolen cars, Public Citizen and two California consumer organizations are suing the U.S. attorney general over delays in implementing it. (Public Citizen v. Mukasey, No. 08833 (N.D. Cal. filed Feb. 6, 2008).)

After wrecked cars are declared total losses, insurers are often assigned the titles and dispose of the vehicles through auction or sale to junk or salvage yards. But a 2002 Consumer Reports study showed that as many as 20 percent of totaled cars involved in fatal accidents are rebuilt and sold each year. The study also showed that 30 percent of those rebuilt cars had fraudulent titles that did not disclose the damage and...

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