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Branding Part 2
Last week?s article shared with you the rationale that motivated the Ontario Government to introduce the mandatory Vehicle Branding program. The program primarily helps to ensure that vehicles being rebuilt are safe for the public to drive and secondly to address one element of auto theft, false VINs.
In the past, many severely damaged vehicles were purchased for their VIN's, which could then be transferred to an identical stolen vehicle and re-registered in Ontario. This program helps to eliminate the availability of VIN's used for illegal purposes. I also provided you with a brief description of the various types of brands used in this program.
This article will explain the history of the program, provide some more detail on the different brands and steps that consumers can take to protect themselves if they are purchasing a used vehicle.
Originally, "Branding" was a volunteer program and many insurance companies began to brand vehicles under the fore mentioned designations however, some insurance companies did not support this program and continued to sell written-off vehicles at salvage auctions. The problem continued in that consumers purchased vehicles that had been rebuilt and were not informed that the vehicle was previously written-off.
The government was aware that each year approximately 90,000 vehicles were written-off by insurance companies and many of these write-offs illegally found their way back onto Ontario roads or were sold to unsuspecting consumers.
In March 2003, the Ontario government passed legislation mandating branding for all written-off vehicles that meet the criteria. Severely damaged vehicles that are written-off and meet the branding criteria must be branded as ?Irreparable? or ?Salvage?. For a vehicle to receive one of these designations it must first be declared a ?total loss? (write-off). The regulations define a total loss vehicle as one that has been damaged by a collision, impact, fire or flood, or has been stolen and dismantled, such that the estimated cost of repairing it exceeds the difference between the fair market value of the vehicle immediately before it was damaged and its salvage value. Ontario brands are then determined through a secondary step that uses a vehicle ?assembly checklist? which defines the irreparable and salvage thresholds.
Vehicle permits will identify the brand of the vehicle in the upper left corner. All vehicles unless they are branded as ?Irreparable?, ?Salvage? or ?Rebuilt? will have a brand ?None? on the vehicle permit.
An assigned brand of ?None? does not necessarily mean the vehicle had not been severely damaged but does mean that the cost of the repair or the extent of the damage does not meet the criteria to assign another brand.
These new branding regulations were not retroactive, so consumers are still at risk of purchasing a written-off or a re-VINed vehicle that entered Ontario before the new restrictions were imposed.
If you are considering purchasing a vehicle privately, make certain that you exercise due diligence. Ask the seller to provide you with a Used Vehicle Information Package (UVIP) for your review before you purchase the vehicle.
You can purchase a UVIP package yourself for a cost of $20.00 from a Driver and Vehicle Licensing office, this will verify whether or not the vehicle was registered to a Body Shop, Impact Auction or was transferred through several owners in a short period of time.
Remember, by purchasing a vehicle from your New Car Dealer you can drive away in a pre-owned vehicle with the confidence of knowing that the dealerships verify vehicle history to ensure that the pre-owned vehicles are not stolen, any salvage history has been disclosed and are lien free.
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