After 16 Years of promises, better background checks for used cars

By next April consumers may finally get something promised by Congress in 1992: a comprehensive database of used vehicles that were stolen or so badly damaged that they were declared total losses. Last Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled in favor of three consumer groups that had sued to force the government to carry out the long-delayed consumer protection law. The law requires a listing, the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System, that insurance companies, junkyards and salvage yards must supply with the vehicle identification numbers of vehicles that have been written off.