A Michigan vehicle title search is a crucial step when shopping for a preowned vehicle. Using a Michigan vehicle title lookup, you can instantly uncover ownership information, lien details, title status and any past damage or branding reported to Michigan’s Secretary of State (SOS). Whether you're purchasing a car from a dealership or a private seller, completing an accurate MI car title search ensures you are making a safe and informed decision.
A comprehensive Michigan title check also helps you identify catastrophic total loss events in the car’s history, such as floods, fires, major accidents, lemon law buybacks, salvage or reconstruction. Any of these events can have a monumental impact on the vehicle’s safety and long-term reliability and value. Using a trusted Vincheckup platform for your Michigan title lookup may help shed some light on the vehicle’s past, allowing users to access official state and national databases, giving you clear insight into odometer readings, ownership transfers, accident events, history of taxi or police use and more… When combined with a professional Pre-Purchase Inspection (PPI), a full vehicle history report in Michigan can help protect you from fraud, hidden issues, and financial risks, ensuring that the vehicle you choose is in good working order, free from any legal or financial complications.
Things to keep in mind when buying a car in Michigan
- There are around 25,000 vehicles stolen in the state of Michigan yearly. Some of these vehicles may make their way into the used car market with false and often times fraudulent paperwork.
- There are close to 300,000 car accidents reported in the state of Michigan annually. A good percentage of these vehicles are repaired and put back on the road. While some repaired vehicles may appear nearly flawless, they may be hiding some issues beneath the shiny new paint job.
- Many of the vehicles registered in the state of Michigan have open liens, which means that the lienholder or lender has a legitimate legal ownership right to the vehicle until such time as the vehicle’s debt is paid in full. Needless to say, buying a car with an undisclosed open lien can spell serious trouble for the new buyer.
- Michigan has approximately 41,000 vehicles with a history of odometer rollback, which means that some of the vehicles on the used car market may be misrepresented and may have been driven more than displayed on the odometer.
- Conducting a vehicle title search in Michigan is essential for ensuring that the car you plan to purchase has a clean and accurate ownership history.
- Mileage rollback is unfortunately not the only type of vehicle-related fraud you need to worry about. According to HIS Automotive Research & Analysis 1 in every 325 used cars sold in the country experiences title washing. This process involves the physical alteration of the title document, most commonly to hide negative events in the car’s history, such as salvage history, floods damage, reconstruction, lemon and various other title brands.
