Branded title

A branded title is a certificate of title that carries a permanent notation about the vehicle’s past. Common brands include salvage, rebuilt, junk, flood or water damage, and lemon law buyback. Each state chooses its own wording, and the brand is meant to follow the car through every later sale.

A brand usually lowers resale value and can limit whether the car can be registered or insured. When you junk a car, a brand rarely changes the scrap price much, but the buyer still needs to know about it for its paperwork.

California explains that brands provide important information about a vehicle’s history and are given to vehicles with high mileage, significant damage or chronic problems. It notes that while most states put history brands on their titles, the wording varies from state to state.¹