Title washing
Removing a brand such as salvage or flood from a car's title, usually by retitling it in another state.
Title washing is the practice of making a branded vehicle appear to have a clean title. It usually happens when a damaged car is moved to a state with different branding rules and retitled there, so the old brand does not carry over.
It matters to anyone buying a used car or used parts from a private seller: a washed car can hide flood or crash damage that affects safety. Sellers of damaged cars should disclose brands honestly; hiding them can be fraud.
The U.S. Department of Justice says that after Hurricane Katrina, authorities reported truckloads of flooded vehicles taken from Louisiana to other states, dried out and cleaned for sale. NMVTIS was designed so that brand histories like these cannot be “washed” or concealed.1
References
-
U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance, “For Consumers” (NMVTIS), https://vehiclehistory.bja.ojp.gov/nmvtis_consumers ↩