On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 13:15:34 -0700, Oren wrote:

On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 14:29:52 -0400, micky
wrote:

Looking to buy a car, check the VIN on carfax, and the repair history
there conflicts with the seller's story about where the car has been.

So maybe I copied the VIN wrong, probably just one digit, but the make
and model of the car that carfax reports is the same as the one I'm
looking at. Does that mean I have the right VIN?

OTOH aren't the last 6 or so digits just a sequential number from the
assembly line that makes, at least for a period of time, just one make
and model, and maybe 2 or 3 submodels?? So that would mean that I still
might have used the wrong VIN, right? If I got the last digit, or even
the next to the last, I might have the car that came off the line next,
right?

I understand the VIN is also tied to other large components of the
vehicle. As an example; the rear axle of a rental truck used in the
OKC bombing flew a long distance and landed in the street. The numbers
on the rear axle was directly to the VIN, make model and such.

Check your state laws. Can a "totaled" car, paid out by insurance, get
a legal title?

You could sell your current used car for a higher price. Houston lost
~500,000 cars flooded. Be careful out there. You could pay for never
ending electrical problems.
Here in Ontario, the seller is required to produce the "sellers kit"
- dealers are not - but you can go to any Service Ontario office or
kiosk and request the "sellers information" package - at your own
expense - and it will tell you if the vehicle was ever registered
out-of-province, and the registration history of the vehicle.


A vehicle written off by insurance can be re-registered with a
"salvage" branded title - but if the write-off was out of province and
it was repaired before importation, it may not have the "branded"
title - but you WILL know it was from out of province - and quite
possiblt the last province or state it was registered in.