What Does a Clean Title Mean?
Car titles are issued when owners pay for their vehicles in full. If you are still paying for it monthly, you might need to get the lienholder's permission to get the title.
The car title serves as proof of ownership of vehicles. It shows their basic vehicle information, like the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), the year, make, model of the car, the owner's full name, and the vehicle history status.
The vehicle history status column typically contains a stamp indicating the car's past. For example, if the car has been in junkyard, the vehicle history status column will say ‘Salvage', if it has been repaired from a total breakdown, it will say ‘Rebuilt'.
Now, a clean title – indicated by not having anything under the vehicle history status column – shows that a vehicle has never been deemed a total loss by an insurance company. This means that it has not suffered any significant damage from accidents, floods, or any other incidents.
This is the ideal vehicle every used car buyer wants to end up with at the end of a sale. Why? Let's talk a little bit about the benefits,
Why is a Clean Title Important?
When a vehicle's title is “clean”, it just clearly says there isn't a single problem with the vehicle. This, in turn, increases its resale value as it's as close to pristine as it can get on paper.
Since the vehicle is seen as much safer and reliable, its value goes up too. They are just as good as new – at least on paper – since new cars have clean titles by default.
Despite being pricier than the typical used cars, the premium is definitely worth it. Cars with clean titles have much more resale value, which means you are more likely to use the vehicle for longer without any trouble. Plus, you may still receive good resale value when it's time to upgrade to another ride.