ClassicCar

Pre 9/11, it was relatively easy and cheap to track a VIN history in most states. About all you can do is go to your state's licensing/titleing authority (differs in most states) and have them do a "VIN history" or "title history". If the car is currently registered, this is fairly easy. If the car has been out of the system (depending on the state, anywhere from five to twenty years), it will not show in their records at all. In order to do a title history, the car/truck MUST be currently registered and/or titled in YOUR name before they will do anything at all for you. Used to be, you could take a VIN to most states and they would run the history for you, whether you owned it or not...NOT anymore! In fact, there are a few states that will not release previous owner info, period, unless it is law-enforcement related and initiated.



Of course, if you have a good idea of local ownership history, start there and you may be able to track ownership through registration docs in the car, and so forth.



Since 9/11, tracing histories of vehicles through most State agencies has got much more complicated, expensive, and sometimes impossible. Homeland Security had much to do with that.



Hope this helps.