Free VIN Check by State: Instant Vehicle History Lookup

Enter Your VIN to Unlock Your Free Vehicle History Report

Type the VIN in the form above, or switch to the license plate tab and pick the state that issued the plate. The free result confirms the model year, make, model and engine, so you can verify that the VIN belongs to the car in front of you before you register it. The full report adds every title the car has carried in another state and any brand each state applied. It takes a few seconds.

Total Loss Threshold by State: When a Car Gets a Salvage Title

State variations in criteria and title-branding designation decide what the title says. A salvage title marks a car that an insurer or the state found too damaged to fix at a reasonable cost; after repairs and a state inspection it can return to the road as rebuilt, reconstructed or prior salvage, depending on the state. States use three kinds of rules:

• Percentage threshold: the car becomes salvage when repair costs reach a set share of its fair market value (FMV) or actual cash value (ACV), from 60% in Oklahoma to 100% in Texas and Colorado.
• Total loss formula (TLF): the car becomes salvage when repair costs plus its salvage value exceed what it was worth before the damage.
• Insurer decision: the brand follows the insurance company’s total loss decision, with no percentage in the statute. Most New England states work this way.

Sources: state statutes and DMV pages linked in the table, checked in September 2026. Rules change. Iowa raised its limit from 50% to 70% in 2021.

Buying a Used Car From Another State: Title Washing and Brand Names

A clean title from one state tells you what that state recorded, not what happened before the car arrived. NMVTIS keeps every brand a state applies as a permanent part of the vehicle’s record, and federal law requires all insurance carriers, auto recyclers, junk yards and salvage yards to report to it. The program calls title washing “brand washing” and says it can occur when a car is retitled in a state that does not check with every state that titled it before. After Hurricane Katrina, flooded cars were driven as far as the upper Midwest and sold in states that do not brand flood vehicles.

Some states close that gap themselves. South Carolina keeps another state’s brand even if the car was later titled somewhere without one, and Nebraska carries forward out-of-state notations such as Flood, Rebuilt, Reconstructed and Total Loss. A title issued recently in another state is a warning sign. Compare the full title history before you pay.

Source: EpicVIN passenger-vehicle database, 294,600,609 VINs, data as of August 2026.

What Your Vehicle History Report Shows for Each State

EpicVIN holds more than 350 million VIN records and runs each query through 70 databases. For one VIN, the report lays out in detail:

• Title history by state: every title event with the state, the issue date and the mileage at that point, plus a link to the full record of the current state.
• Title brands: 8 major brand checks (salvage, rebuilt, fire, hail, flood, buyback, junk and export only) and 38 more from NMVTIS.
• Total loss, theft and lien records: insurance total loss declarations, theft records from the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) and lien records where reported.
• Ownership history: the owners in order, how long each kept the car and how many miles it covered per year.

To see a state’s DMV links, its VIN verification rules and what EpicVIN users check there most often, choose the state from the list below. You can also open a sample vehicle history report first.