Buyers need vehicle information

To the editor:

In April, the Missouri Department of Revenue announced that effective May 1 fees associated with vehicle registration records, including the disclosure of salvage, flood and other information, would increase from approximately $1.25 a record to $7 per record. These vehicle records are used by thousands of Missouri consumers and hundreds of small businesses to make sure our cars are safe, reliable and if they've been previously salvaged, flood damaged, have open recalls or other potentially costly and life-threatening problems.

This ill-conceived action will effectively eliminate consumer access to this vital information. Missouri consumers will ultimately pay the price.

The Department of Revenue contends that out-of-state companies have been exploiting this information for their own profits. This statement is misleading and inaccurate.

Carfax, which started in Columbia, Mo., and other consumer-advocacy organizations combine VIN-specific vehicle registration information with that from every state and Canadian province. Consumers have come to rely on these vehicle history reports to help them buy safe and reliable used cars.

Currently, Carfax vehicle history reports are available free on popular Internet used-car sites. Under the Department of Revenue proposal, to gather the same information for just one vehicle we would have to submit requests to every state and provincial department of motor vehicles. That would cost over $150 and take approximately six months.

The fee increase proposed by the Department of Revenue is bad for Missouri.

GARY LEE, Vice President, Carfax, Columbia, Mo.