A free way to check out used cars

By Marilyn Lewis

The National Insurance Crime Bureau has unveiled an online database into which consumers can plug -- free -- a vehicle identification number to learn whether a car had been stolen or badly damaged in a wreck, flood or fire.

VINCheck looks like a bargain compared with Carfax's Vehicle History Report (single report $24.99, 10 reports $29.99, unlimited use for $34.99, reports posted free by many auto dealers online) or Experian's AutoCheck Vehicle History Report (single report $19.99, 60-day unlimited use $24.99).

A vehicle's history can mean life or death, says Rosemary Shahan, the president of the nonprofit Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, based in Sacramento, Calif. Millions of vehicles routinely are offered for sale after they've been cleaned up and repaired after having been declared a total loss from a crash, fire or natural disaster. A half-million cars wrecked by Hurricane Katrina, for instance, were salvaged and resold after they'd marinated in a stew of petrochemicals and bacteria, Shahan says.

"There is no way they could be made safe," she says. That's because crucial electronic circuits were likely damaged. A previously flooded engine could die in traffic; brakes could give out under stress; airbags could fail to deploy in a crash.

• Video: Take an online test drive at MSN Autos

But the rap on the crime bureau's free service is that it has holes. What it has: claims data from 76% of U.S. auto insurers, updated instantly. What's missing: claims from insurers that don't belong to the bureau, wrecked vehicles for which no insurance claim was filed, vehicles from rental fleets and those from fleets self-insured by the companies that owned them.

Although Carfax and Experian reports endeavor to be more thorough -- they pull from police departments, state motor vehicle agencies and large networks of dealers as well as from insurers -- not all cities and counties share stolen- and wrecked-vehicle reports. Some states don't release lists of salvaged cars -- or they release lists three to six months late, by which time a car salvaged from the recent Minnesota floods could be sitting in your driveway.

All of which makes VIN-check services a screening device rather than a green light to go ahead and buy.

A great step, but only the first

All VIN-check services have gaps, says Jeff Ostroff, a consumer advocate who runs CarBuyingTips.com.

As an experiment, he traced a car whose title had been stamped from a flood. "We wanted to see how long it would take before it showed up as a salvaged vehicle -- it took four months," he says.

(Carfax refunds up to 110% of a vehicle's Kelley Blue Book price if its report misses a salvaged vehicle, even due to a reporting lag. Experian's AutoCheck offers a guarantee, too, but does not cover such lags.)

Continued: National vehicle-title database

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