NIADA Supports Passage of Senate/House Vehicle Disclosure Bills

Thousands of vehicles are sold every year with clean titles to unsuspecting consumers and used motor vehicle dealers alike. In September of 2005, in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association announced that one of its top priorities is to ensure that dealers are in a position to be able to pass on to the consuming public any material disclosures or other information they receive with respect to the vehicles they sell. NIADA took a step forward in realizing this goal with the introduction of Senate Bill 3707 (The Passenger Vehicle Loss Disclosure Act) and House Bill 6093 (The Damaged Vehicle Information Act).

As introduced, both Bills would require that information be provided to the public in a commercially reasonable manner when a vehicle has sustained flood or water damage, collision or fire damage, or was stolen and recovered. The Senate Bill is geared toward insurers who determine or declare a vehicle a total loss, while the House Measure would apply to any person who terminates a contract related to a motor vehicle for one of these reasons. "NIADA will support passage of the Legislation and may seek the inclusion of an amendment to ensure the carry forward of title brands," according to Keith Whann, NIADA's General Counsel.

Over the last 2 decades, both NIADA and the National Automobile Dealers Association have worked on numerous projects with Congress and Federal Regulatory Agencies to improve the disclosure process. "We recently had the opportunity to get together with the National Automobile Dealers Association's Legislative Affairs Staff, to discuss the Legislation and how we can ensure that both dealers and the consuming pubic have timely access to title and total-loss data," said Whann. "Our positions are consistent and we intend to work closely with NADA to combat title washing and fraud issues," he added.

According to Michael Linn, Executive Vice-President and CEO of NIADA, education also remains a key component of any viable solution. "Half the battle for a consumer in making an informed buying decision is knowing what to ask and what to look for during the car buying process," said Linn. "For this reason, NIADA will continue to develop educational programs on this important issue that will be directed not only to NIADA members, but to consumers as well on the NIADA.TV Network's new consumer channel."

For additional information on a wide variety of topics related to this industry, tune into NIADA's live broadcast of the 2nd Annual National Dealer Compliance and Profitability Expo from Columbus, Ohio on Monday, December 11. Attend in person or watch the broadcast from 9-4 EST on NIADA.TV.

Visit http://www.niada.com/ or http://www.niada.tv/
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