Changes To Salvage Car Sales Could Cut Insurance Rates In Ohio
By Michael Cooper, Dayton Daily News, Ohio | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
House Bill 468, sponsored by state Rep.
Currently,
The state has more than 600 valid salvage dealers, according to the
In other states, insurance companies can sell the vehicles to anyone via online auctions with fewer regulations.
The legislation would allow anyone with a salvage motor vehicle auction license or salvage motor vehicle pool license to sell salvage vehicles to authorized purchasers.
Also, a person wouldn't need to obtain a buyer's identification card from the Registrar of Motor Vehicles before buying a salvage vehicle at an auction or pool.
"Nobody really likes the bill," McGregor said. "There are some competing interests here."
The insurance industry doesn't believe it goes far enough, McGregor said, while salvage dealers don't want anything to change.
"This is a modest step in opening up the salvage vehicle industry to a broader market, but it doesn't do away with complete restrictions," said McGregor, R-
The law maintains certain prohibitions on salvage dealers, including banning sales when there's reasonable cause that a vehicle may have been stolen, or a title wasn't presented to the purchaser before a sale is completed.
The bill passed the House on
The bill was assigned to the State Government Oversight & Reform committee on
A previous bill, Senate Bill 273, died on the House floor in
SB 273 would have essentially opened up the salvage vehicle market, McGregor said. They used that bill as a starting point for the new legislation.
"Some of it is minor and some of it is major," he said. "At the end of the day, there were some tough decisions (state Rep.
Damaged cars could be sold to unsuspecting consumers, whereas salvage yards typically buy the cars and sell the parts.
"These vehicles are big targets for theft and deception to the consumer, like title cloning and VIN washing," McKinney said. "Those things are susceptible to happen."
The association has 600 members in
"There's only so many wrecked cars to buy," McKinney said. "If (dealers) buy fewer of them and more of them are going out of the country, which is what they want, then jobs will be lost in
Currently 40 states have no restrictions on who can purchase salvage vehicles, said
"(The bill) is a sliver of progress," Fadel said. "I wouldn't give it any more than that."
Scrapped vehicles are a byproduct of the auto insurance business, Fadel said. There are currently a few thousand qualified buyers in
"They're getting their product for a lot less here because there's a smaller pool of buyers," Fadel said. "They're turning around and selling them for market prices."
People buying cars at auction without identification cards could lead to people buying cars and selling parts out of their homes without a license, said
"Some of them do things they shouldn't do with these old cars and sell to the public," Wyen said. "The (buyers) get burnt and they don't have any recourse."
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