Each of the 50 US states maintains its own motor vehicle records. There is
no central Federal repository for the information (although some law
enforcement agencies have networks which share CURRENT information like
stolen vehicles and drivers with suspended licenses). Some states have
privacy laws which prevent them from releasing some or all of the
information to private citizens. Other states do not maintain records far
enough back to be useful to you; even if they have them on paper or
microfilm somewhere they certainly haven't added them to their computer
databases. In states where the information is available it is typically
indexed by the license plate number (issued by the state), not the
commission number. It may not be easy but there are a couple of things you
can do and you might get lucky.
If you know what state the car came from you can contact the department of
motor vehicles (DMV, or sometimes called the department of transportation-
DOT) there and ask if they can help you. While every government has its
share of surly and unhelpful bureaucrats, in the past I have used email to
contact both the Illinois and Pennsylvania DMVs and in each case I received
quick, courteous, and useful replies. I suspect they were glad to get
something interesting to do. I suspect tracing the history of an antique
car for some guy in England is probably a LOT more interesting than their
usual routine so give it a try!
Please note that here in the US license plate numbers often stay with the
owner, not the car. At different times one car can have more than one
licence plate number and one license plate number can be on more than one car.
If that doesn't pan out I would suggest contacting the seller and tracing
it backwards one owner at a time.
Good luck! Let us know if you get anywhere.
-Erik
At 04:38 PM 9/23/2000 -0400, Triumphtr250nut@aol.com wrote:
>I have recently purchased a reimported TR250 here in the UK.
>
>Is there anyway of tracing the cars history in the USA, I know it was shipped
>to the Leyland Corporation of North America, San Francisco on 16/10/67 and
>shipped back to the UK in March 1998.
>
>Its commission number is CD430L, Royal Blue in colour
>
>Can anyone suggest where I can find this info, or did you once own it?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Phil
--
Erik Quackenbush, V.P. Operations, Midwest Filter Corporation
1-847-680-0566 fax: 1-847-680-0832 http://www.midwestfilter.com
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