Three marks that have to agree
The DMV's outline calls this indicia verification. The indicia are the marks that identify a car, and verifying them is a habit: before money changes hands, read the public VIN on the car, read the federal certification label, read the VIN on the title, and make sure all three name the same car. A stolen car can wear new paint and a new owner. It cannot easily wear three matching numbers.
The public VIN is governed by 49 CFR 565.13: 17 characters, a check digit in the ninth position, and on a passenger car, a multipurpose passenger vehicle or a truck rated at 4,536 kilograms or less, a place inside the passenger compartment where a person outside at the left windshield pillar can read it through the glass. The DMV requires a 17-character VIN that passes the check digit on every 1983 and newer motor vehicle (Vehicle Industry Registration Procedures Manual 1.175, read 2026-10-22).
The federal certification label is governed by 49 CFR 567.4. It goes on the hinge pillar, the door latch post or the door edge beside the driver's seat, carries the VIN with the maker's name and the build date, and must be riveted or affixed so that it cannot come off without being destroyed or defaced. The DMV treats it as a second source for the VIN, never the first (manual 1.165; Vehicle Verifier License Handbook, OL 301).
The third mark is the paper. The registration card describes the vehicle as completely as the application did (Vehicle Code 4453(a)). The DMV's verification form, REG 31, ends with the inspector marking whether the ownership document agrees with the VIN on the car, and a disagreement sends the car to the DMV or the Highway Patrol (OL 301). Many cars carry a fourth set: the theft prevention standard, 49 CFR 541.5, marks up to eighteen major parts with the VIN or a form of it. A door label with a different VIN came from another car, and REG 31 has a box for it, "Door Replaced."
What a cloned, retagged or stolen car looks like
A cloned car is a stolen car wearing the identity of a legitimate one: the thief copies the VIN of a lawfully titled car of the same make, model and year onto a stolen one. The Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Assistance runs NMVTIS to prevent that theft and fraud, and credits it with catching cloned vehicles before a title issues (BJA, NMVTIS overview, read 2026-10-22). A retagged car is the plainer version, a VIN plate or label moved from one body to another. Vehicle Code 10750 forbids defacing, destroying or altering any identification number used for registration. Section 10751 reaches you: knowingly buying, selling, receiving or possessing a vehicle or part whose manufacturer's number has been removed, defaced, altered or destroyed is unlawful. A peace officer seizes the car, a court hears the matter within 90 days, and unless someone shows satisfactory evidence of ownership the court orders it destroyed or sold.
The signs are the places where the marks fail to agree, and each is a line on REG 31:
- The dash VIN, the label VIN and the title VIN differ by even one character.
- The plate or label looks newer than the car, or is torn, reglued or peeling. REG 31 records how the plate is attached and whether it appears okay or tampered with; a label that came off whole was not the factory's (49 CFR 567.4).
- The check digit fails, or the tenth character gives a model year other than the one claimed (REG 31 reads the year from that character).
- A door, fender or hood label carries another VIN, or is missing on a car that never saw a body shop.
- NMVTIS shows a title in a state the seller never mentioned, or a junk, salvage or total loss report.
- The seller is not the registered owner on the title, or a lienholder is named and nothing releases it.
Section 431 defines a nonrepairable vehicle to include a stripped theft recovery or a burned hulk worth nothing but scrap or a vehicle identification number that could be used illegally, and neither the vehicle nor its frame can ever be titled again (431; the certificate says "NONREPAIRABLE VEHICLE" across its face, 11515.2(g)). A car carrying a VIN the record shows as nonrepairable is a clone. A verifier who finds tampering must notify the DMV's Investigations Section at once (OL 301). Do the same, and do not take the car in: under 10751, possession is the offense.
What a VIN verifier does, and when the DMV requires one
A vehicle verifier inspects a vehicle, records its identification and submits that proof to the DMV for registering or transferring it (Vehicle Code 675.5). Peace officers, DMV employees, National Insurance Crime Bureau agents and certified insurance organizations' verifiers are excluded and need no permit (675.6). Everyone else needs a vehicle verifier's permit, and acting without one is unlawful (11300). The permit takes a $5,000 bond (11301; OL 301, read 2026-10-22).
The DMV requires a verification to register a vehicle last registered out of state, to reregister a former junk or salvage vehicle unless a CHP Certificate of Inspection is attached, to register a vehicle it has no record of, and whenever the VIN on the certificates differs from the record (manual 1.165). A licensed verifier may handle nonresident vehicles and vehicles with ownership documents but no California record; revived salvage and junk, specially constructed vehicles, vehicles with documents from another country and vehicles whose label is missing or disagrees with the VIN go to the DMV or the CHP (REG 31 reverse; OL 301).
Salvage is the strict case. Vehicle Code 5505 makes the DMV inspect every former total loss salvage or dismantled vehicle presented for registration, or refer it to the Highway Patrol. The rebuilder presents bills of sale for every component part, naming the donor car's VIN and the seller (5505(d)). The inspection fee is $50, paid before the inspection (9255.2; manual Appendix 1F, read 2026-10-22), and the DMV may not register a referred car until the CHP's Certificate of Inspection, form CHP 97C, is in the application (11519(b); manual 1.060). A seller of a salvage vehicle must tell the buyer that parts documentation will be demanded at that inspection (5505(d)).
The NMVTIS check
The National Motor Vehicle Title Information System is a federal database under 49 U.S.C. 30501 and following, run under 28 CFR part 25. The operator must make it available to a prospective purchaser, and the definitions count a dealer as a purchaser (25.53(a); 25.52). For any VIN it tells you whether a document offered as a title is valid, which state holds the title, whether the car is or has been a junk or salvage automobile, the odometer reading when the title issued, and whether a junk yard, salvage yard or insurer has reported it (25.53(b)). Nothing in the federal rule makes a dealer pull a report. California does.
Since July 1, 2012, Vehicle Code 11713.26 has barred a dealer from displaying or offering a used vehicle for retail sale until it has obtained an NMVTIS vehicle history report for that VIN. If the report, or the title, shows that the vehicle is or has been a junk or salvage automobile, that a yard or an insurer reported it, or that the title carries a brand, you do two things. You post the statute's warning on the car while it is displayed, in at least 14-point bold black type with "Warning" in 18-point, on a red background of at least 4 by 5.5 inches, next to the Buyers Guide. And you give the buyer a copy of the report on request before the sale. The duty lifts only where NMVTIS has no record and you tried, and the section does not reach recreational vehicles, motorcycles or off-highway vehicles. You are not liable for errors in the report or for anything added after you pulled it (11713.26(f)).
Pull it before you bid, not after, and keep it with the deal. Every business record relating to a vehicle transaction is kept at least three years, the paper originals at your place of business for the first 90 days (13 CCR 272.00 and 272.02, read 2026-10-22).
What you learn at purchase, you disclose at sale
Previous rental or taxi and previous law enforcement vehicle are brands before they are disclosures. Vehicle Code 4453(b) requires the registration card to identify a former taxicab and a vehicle once registered to a law enforcement agency and used in that work, and the DMV carries brands forward from other states' documents (manual 1.025). The disclosure rule sits in the DMV's advertising regulations: former taxicabs, rental vehicles, publicly owned vehicles, insurance salvage and revived salvage vehicles shall be clearly identified as such if the previous status is known to the seller (13 CCR 260.02). Vehicle Code 11713(t) adds that a dealer advertising a car it used itself as a demonstrator, rental, loaner or lease vehicle must say so and may never call it new.
Known damage: for a new vehicle, 9991 requires written disclosure of repaired material damage, and 9990 defines material damage, frame and drive train damage included. For a used car: a seller on a salvage certificate must disclose at or before the sale that the car was declared a total loss, or owe a civil penalty of up to $500 (11515(h)), and 11713.18 forbids selling a car as certified when the dealer knows or should know of frame damage, when impact, fire or flood damage still impairs its use or safety after repair, or when the title carries a salvage, junk, nonrepairable, flood or Lemon Law Buyback brand. Frame damage you saw at the auction is frame damage you know.
Odometer replacement leaves a mark on the car. Under 49 U.S.C. 32704 an odometer may be repaired or replaced only if the reading stays what it was; if it cannot, the odometer is set to zero and a written notice on the left door frame states the mileage before the work and the date. The DMV will not record a replaced odometer's reading as actual mileage without a statement from whoever replaced it giving the date and the old and new readings (manual 5.050).
Condition of vehicle is what your inspection tells you, and it becomes the Buyers Guide you post; a certified car also needs a completed inspection report and cannot be sold as is (11713.18(a)(6) to (8)). The return option contract OL 2000 names was Vehicle Code 11713.21, the paid two-day cancellation option on a used car under $40,000. It repealed itself on October 1, 2026 (11713.21(i)); a contract signed before that day keeps its option. Since then Civil Code 1784.43 gives the buyer of a used vehicle at $50,000 or less a free three-day right to cancel, counted in calendar days from the day after signing (1784.31(i)), within 400 miles, with the refund due in 48 hours less the restocking fee the section allows. The conditional sales contract lesson has the fee table.
Sources
- 49 CFR 565.13, vehicle identification number requirements; 49 CFR 567.4, the certification label; 49 CFR 541.5, parts marking under the theft prevention standard, read 2026-10-22.
- Vehicle Code 10750 and 10751, altered identification numbers; 431, nonrepairable vehicles; 11515.2, the nonrepairable vehicle certificate, read 2026-10-22.
- Vehicle Code 675.5 and 675.6, vehicle verifiers; 11300 and 11301, the verifier's permit and bond; 5505 and 11519, salvage vehicle inspection; 9255.2, the inspection fee, read 2026-10-22.
- DMV, Vehicle Industry Registration Procedures Manual, sections 1.025, 1.060, 1.165, 1.175 and 5.050 and Appendix 1F; Vehicle Verifier License Handbook, OL 301 (rev. 8/2009); form REG 31 (rev. 10/2018), read 2026-10-22.
- 28 CFR 25.52 and 25.53, NMVTIS; U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance, NMVTIS overview page, read 2026-10-22.
- Vehicle Code 11713.26, the dealer's NMVTIS report and warning, read 2026-10-22.
- 13 CCR 272.00 and 272.02, dealer business records, read 2026-10-22.
- Vehicle Code 4453(b), brands on the registration card; 11713(t), prior use in advertising; 9990 and 9991, material damage to new vehicles; 11515(h), the salvage disclosure; 11713.18, certified used vehicles; 11713.21 (repealed October 1, 2026), the contract cancellation option, read 2026-10-22.
- Civil Code 1784.31 and 1784.43, the three-day right to cancel, read 2026-10-22.
- 13 CCR 260.02, vehicle history in advertising, read 2026-10-22.
- 49 U.S.C. 32704, odometer service, repair and replacement, read 2026-10-22.
- DMV, Lesson Plan Guidelines for Used Vehicle Dealer Education Programs, OL 2000 (rev. 12/2007).