WASHINGTON, DC -- The National Automobile Dealers Association's (NADA) Vice President of Legislative Affairs, David Regan, will testify today before the Senate Commerce Committee in support of vehicle total-loss disclosure legislation, S. 545, during an oversight hearing on the property and casualty insurance industry.

According to NADA, roughly five million vehicles were "totaled" in 2005 due to severe damage, flooding or theft, including 570,000 from the Gulf Hurricanes alone. Thousands of these vehicles have been cleaned up and resold to unsuspecting customers unaware of the car's troubled past – a problem called "title washing."

Title washing takes a double-hit on consumers. First, it's a significant and unnecessary public health and safety risk to the entire motoring public because more unsafe cars are on the road (i.e. airbags or anti-lock brakes fail due to previous damage). And second, it's a significant economic risk to buyers of used vehicles who may overpay for a rebuilt wreck.

Unfortunately, because state motor vehicle titling laws are confusing and incomplete, consumers do not have access to timely and complete total-loss data, says NADA.

NADA and a coalition comprised of automakers, service organizations and others, have been building bipartisan support for S. 545 introduced by Senator Trent Lott (R-MS), which requires insurers to make total-loss data commercially available to vehicle history providers such as Experian's AutoCheck and Carfax. The Lott bill would effectively and permanently "red-flag" insurance-totaled vehicles.

For more information, please visit: http://www.NADA.org/tld.