How far back are Title records kept?

P

paulmusiclover

Junior Member
Hello all - I'm trying to track down the history of my vehicle (1940 Ford Convertible Coupe). I live in Austin, Texas, bought the car in San Antonio. I sent the state a records request, but all I received was a copy of my transaction, and the title the previous owner signed over to me, dated 1992 (he said he owned it for 18 years.) -- the previous owner's name is on it, so I have been doing some web research. I'm hoping the name I located from the title online isn't the right person , since I have his middle initial, and know he's a "the 3rd (III)" which should narrow things considerably, but if so, he died in 2005 and lived in Ohio. .

The reason for my question is that this title is from 1992, and the note in the file says: " We are unable to provide the following information: Next Transaction. Due to the reason below: Too Old, not in film."

I was surprised that so (relatively) recent a transaction wouldn't be archived. Does anyone know how far back such records are kept in Texas? I've hit a wall, and I haven't even made it back 20 years.. .there's still 52 years of history to discover about my car! :) Or.... does this mean the previous owner was so far back (20, 30, 40 years?) that they don't have that transaction on file anymore?

Anyway, just thought I'd see if anyone had any thoughts on where to go from here.

Paul
 
Its state by state. Not all states required titles, and some that didn't eventually changed the laws to issue titles. Some states keep things forever, some states purge the records after a couple decades.
 
in the states that have titles they throw out the old files
after so many years of non activity, it varys from state to state
20 ,25 30 years or so, you would have to inquire with the
state in question..
 
When I asked for back-tracking to correct an error in one of my titles, that would require going back into the '70's, they told me those would be paper-only records and they don't have the manpower to do searches manually, unless ordered by the courts. They also said just because titles have been microfiched doesn't mean they are indexed by VIN or names. Unless you can narrow the dates and names down pretty closely, they said it takes forever to do a search on older stuff. (And this is in a much smaller state)
 
V12Bill, hit the nail on the head. Unfortunately, privacy laws are making researching a title very difficult, if not impossible. LouB.
 
Generally speaking, most states purge their DMV files in six years.... The exception to the rule is if a vehicle is reported as stolen and/or was used to secure a recorded loan.
In both of these cases the record (s) do not generally go away until the theft, loan is recovered/cleared.
Some states add a letter to the VIN each time a vehicle is transferred to a new owner. i.e. an A before the VIN means transferred once, B, twice, C three, etc.etc.
If you don't receive a verbal/written history of a vehicle when you purchase it, there is no way to dig up the prior history of the vehicle.
 
Prior to the computer age, most states kept cardex files at their state DMVs. I doubt if they ever go back to those files even if they still have them. They never had the time or budget to digitize all that stuff so they probably waited a few years then deep sixed the stuff or sold it as paper pulp for recycle. I bet the military did the same thing with all the thousands of tons of paper they had for military vehicle & aircraft records at at Louis Mo. It seems like I heard they had a fire because of that stuff one time.

Kerby
 
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