SAN FRANCISCO -- It’s called the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System. Congress passed legislation back in 1992 trying to stop fraud in used car auto sales.

They told the Department of Justice to create a single database that would provide public access to a vehicle’s history.

But nothing happened until three national consumer groups sued the DOJ.

In a San Francisco courtroom today, Public Citizen, Consumers for Reliability and Safety and Consumer Action has compelled the Department to enact the law.

The reason for the need for the law to become reality has been reported by the 10News I team over the years.

There are many ways to hide a car’s history.

The crooked car lot can roll back the odometer on a car, reducing the mileage dramatically and increasing the value of the car significantly.

There are also “washed titles” where the history of the car is changed on the title by changing mileage information or removing damaging information. (I.E. salvage vehicle)

For many car buyers, it meant you had to trust questionable data bases on a car’s history or a used car dealer’s honesty.

It’s estimated that 1.5 million cars on California roadways have what the I Team calls a “HIDDEN HISTORY”

Check out the law here.

Check out why the law is needed here.