Mandatory Vehicle Branding
In North America, the vast majority of vehicle titles are issued by individual provinces/states and territories. Most have implemented some branding scheme to warn subsequent owners of a vehicle of severe damage to a vehicle due to collision, theft or disaster . The brands and the criteria used to assign them vary widely from one jurisdiction to another.
Typically, these include some variant of:
| Brand | AKA | Description |
|---|---|---|
| None | (clear), Normal | Has not been branded in this jurisdiction. May be a vehicle which has not been in an accident or has been in an accident minor enough that the cost of repair was less than the cost to write off the vehicle. May also be a vehicle which sustained severe damage in some other jurisdiction (if laws between the two differ significantly) or which was damaged and repaired before the introduction of vehicle branding or was damaged or repaired without notification to an insurance company. |
| Rebuilt | Rebuilt Salvage or Prior Salvage | A vehicle that has been previously branded as salvage but has been rebuilt/repaired and reinspected. These vehicles are driveable but the rebuilt brand remains on the vehicle's title/registration documents permanently. Some jurisdictions require that rebuilt vehicles imported across provincial or state lines be reinspected before being allowed to retain the rebuilt title. |
| Salvage | Véhicule gravement accidenté, total loss | A vehicle that can be repaired but which would cost more than some predefined amount (often 75-100% of the car's value) to repair. Subject to structural safety inspection before it can be driven; documentation of repairs and sources of repair parts may also be required, depending on jurisdiction. Alternately, some jurisdictions (i.e. NJ) issue a standard title with a "salvage" suffix to indicate a reconstructed vehicle, as opposed to a "rebuilt" or "reconstructed" title (i.e. PA). |
| Irreparable | Junk Fire Flood damaged |
A vehicle that can be used for parts or scrap only. |
| Title documents may also link a VIN (vehicle identification number) to information such as: | ||
| Designation | AKA | Description |
| buyback | lemon | State "lemon laws" often require that, if vendor attempts to repair a problem under a new-car warranty repeatedly fail, the manufacturer or dealer buy back or replace the vehicle. Depending on the jurisdiction, this may be required to be disclosed to subsequent owners of a problem car. |
| wrecked | WRK crushed baled |
Vehicle has been permanently dismantled or recycled as scrap metal. This status effectively prevents the VIN from the destroyed vehicle from ever being re-used. |
| theft recovery | While stolen is a status and typically not a brand (as licensing agencies can refuse to issue any title document once a vehicle is stolen), previously-stolen vehicles are often found dismantled, vandalised or destroyed through arson. Many are then branded and may be irreparable. | |
| abandoned | found on road dead | The vehicle was found abandoned by its previous owner. Typically not a brand, but may need to be disclosed in some jurisdictions. |
| taxi police |
fleet | The vehicle has been used in public transportation, law enforcement, daily rental or commercial applications which represent an above-average likelihood of wear-and-tear. Not a brand, but typically must be disclosed to subsequent buyers. |
With the exception of 'salvage' (which may be replaced by the 'rebuilt' brand after repair and structural inspection, depending on the rules and regulations of the issuing district), the brands are permanent. Once a vehicle identification number has been associated with one of these brands, it will not be removed by authorities in that jurisdiction or in other jurisdictions with similar vehicle branding laws.
There is no consistent list of brands or of conditions under which they apply. What most US states call "junk" and most Canadian provinces call "irreparable" («irrécupérable») can be labelled "salvage" in some other jurisdiction - either because the criteria are different or because the same brand has been confusingly been given a different name. In Alberta only, "non repairable" is used to mean irreparable - in most other jurisdictions including Alberta, "salvage" means that the vehicle can indeed be repaired but that the cost of doing so is most likely prohibitive.
Read more about this topic: Vehicle Title Branding
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