<P> Title washing refers to transferring a vehicle's registration for the express purpose of removing a title brand . The practice is legal, and practiced by the insurance companies themselves . Title brands such as "salvage," "junk," and "rebuilt" are not standardized, and a vehicle which has such a designation may receive a clean title when registered in a different jurisdiction . Further, vehicles imported to or exported from the United States and Canada are issued a clean title, even if they have been involved in an accident . Other states have relatively lax inspection criteria to remove the salvage brand . </P> <P> Vehicle history reports sold by specialty services are intended to disclose the title history of the vehicle, including title washing . Because many US states don't submit accident information to the central National Motor Vehicle Title Information System and junkyards don't always file required paperwork for destroyed vehicles, the accuracy of these reports is not high . Consumer Reports noted that vehicle history checks would at times produce "clean" results despite the vehicles' being offered for sale as damaged on salvage - vehicle resale websites; title report provider Carfax settled a class - action lawsuit regarding the comprehensiveness of its reports in 2007 . </P>

When is a car considered a salvage title