For used-car buyers, it just got cheaper to spot a lemon

Californians can get a report on a used car’s history from the state DMV for only dollars, now that the state has made information from a federal website available to consumers.

Consumers now can buy a report from the California Department of Motor Vehicles containing information from a database compiled from junkyards, mechanics, insurance companies and other sources.

The report is relatively inexpensive -- the document from the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System costs $4 or less, compared with the approximately $30 charge for a history from Carfax, a car- information firm.

The database is run by the American Assn. of Motor Vehicle Administrators for the Justice Department.

Congress passed a law in 1992 mandating the creation of the database as a tool to combat auto theft and fraud. But it wasn’t until 2008 that the Justice Department created the database, after lawsuits from consumer groups accused the agency of dragging its feet.

Only 31 states offer these reports to the public.

The reports can be purchased online at https:// www.vehiclehistory.gov.

With the reports, used-car buyers can find out whether the car has been stolen or its odometer altered. The report can reveal if a car has been declared a total loss, salvaged from a flood or rebuilt after a wreck, said Joe Ridout, a spokesman for San Francisco-based advocacy group Consumer Action.

The histories can also help buyers avoid vehicles that are unsafe because they may have been inadequately repaired after damage, he said.

However, reports from Carfax and its competitor Experian AutoCheck do have some information not included in the federal database, such as data from police reports, repair shops and smog facilities, Ridout said.

“It took more than 18 years to get this information available to the public in California, but it’s here,” Ridout said. “The national database is the cheapest and most complete report a car buyer can get, and it should be the first place they look.”

California did not offer these reports to the public until this week. Instead, DMV officials contracted with Carfax’s parent, R.L. Polk & Co., in April 2008 to help get its millions of applicable records into the federal database as efficiently and quickly as possible. In turn it gave Carfax the right to sell these reports to California consumers.

But consumer groups criticized the arrangement and urged the DMV to issue the reports itself. Last fall, a state law was passed that required the DMV to issue the reports; the agency canceled its contract with Polk shortly thereafter.

“It was ridiculous to think that a private company was profiting off public information that was being held back from the public,” said Rosemary Shahan, president of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety. “We’ve been working on this for years and finally people have access to this database.”

nathan.olivarezgiles @latimes.com