Is there a way to locate a car by vin?

Kicking myself for selling a 1971 swinger a few years ago. Is there anyway to search a vin to find out where the car is located? Thanks

No no no and no……..think about the stalking opportunities!

Used to be able to do that, up through the late 90's. A simple phone call to a tag agency was all you needed to do. I located a car that way years ago. Unless you know someone in law enforcement, it's not going to happen.

If you haven't done a google search of the VIN, I'd try it. A lot of car marketplace sites require a VIN to be included with a for sale ad for a car. If it has gone through a path like this it might give you some clues.

Besides a google search, some states have a VIN lookup which might help you narrow down your search a bit. For example in Ohio you can see if a car is titled there and which county it currently resides in but you won't get owner/address info. If you can get the general geography figured out, perhaps a board member in that area may recognize the car.

Ohio Title Lookup: https://bmvonline.dps.ohio.gov/Search/Title

Wow that’s a cool thing. One of my old roadrunners is still in Cincinnati and hasn’t been sold since the guy bought it.

thanks for that! I checked a bunch of my former & current cars (I have 2 still titled/registered in Ohio, one wasn't found )

but there were a number that show active with my Lake county titles & most were sold ~20 years ago, a couple were listed inactive title surrendered out of state

my Lil' Red now in Lorain county, my El Camino now in Cuyahoga county, my Charger now in Geauga county
&
my 442 surrendered to ID, my Charger surrendered to MI

Before anyone chimes in with the suggestion to contact insurance companies and ask if they have any info, I can tell you not to waste your time trying. They won't tell you a thing.

Could try here to see if anyone else is looking for info: https://board.moparts.org/ubbthread...roadcast-sheets-l-f-a-body.html#Post1253

Or just type the vin into google and see if it was ever for sale online.

They won't help, but they DO have it. Even VON records.

Does some dopey company have paper records sitting in a storage room somewhere? Maybe, but no one even knows what they are, or why they are there. Most companies computerized everything decades ago, and got rid of any paper files. Once the statue of limitations has run out, and/or the claim has been settled for X period of time,and any statutory requirements have been met regarding record retention, records get purged electronically as well. Even if they could tell you (which they can't), they likely wouldn't be able to tell you anyway.

Hmmmmm I know of a Lil' Red Express hidden away in Lorain County, A friend and not sure if........well I doubt, he wants to sell it BUT you never know. If you want me to check if it's your old LRE pm me the VIN and I'll check it for you.

Mike

Even if they have vin data for all the cars they’ve insured, it might not be accurate.
I just went around in circles for a week with Autotrader trying to figure out why the ad I submitted for my 09 Challenger only showed pending and never would go live.
Finally they determined the vin I’d given with my listing wasn’t a valid vin. Huh? I’d copied my vin info off of my State Farm policy which was by my desk, rather than go out to the garage to take it off the car itself.
I then checked the cars VIN and sure enough, one digit didn’t match what was listed on my insurance policy. They had an 8 where an H was correct.
So apparently I’ve been insured for 12 years with an invalid VIN for my car.
You’d think they’d check insured VINs for accuracy, Autotrader apparently has a way to do that?

it is a '79 & looked like this in '95

If it was stolen, you can search here.....

https://www.nicb.org/vincheck

They also have all V.I.N. data from most vehicles manufactured in the U.S. But, you’ll need a LEO to run it.

If you don't do any good with a Google search, try a private investigator. Moparts member 65Fury440 is a PI, and looked one up for me for a reasonable fee a few years ago. Good luck with your search.

Customers provide the VIN to the insurance company. Sometimes, the customer is wrong. Sometimes, the person at the insurance company makes a typo. On the phone, "Eight" and "H" sound similar, and that would be an easy mistake to make. Either way, it doesn't have any impact on your insurance premiums, etc., so why spend the time/money verifying the VIN? If you have a claim, and the inspection of your vehicle finds a typo/error related to the VIN, the insurer will correct it. Typos/errors are easy to identify at that point. The bigger issue is when the VIN doesn't match at all.

Or someone who works in insurance claims.

GEE I don't know anyone in that line of work

I can access NICB, ISO, etc., but I'd never consider doing it for anything other than a work related reason. I like my job and my 401k too much.

SMART MAN

Here in Texas the VIN Better match with the insurance, the police cars have scanners that check license plates & if the car has insurance & also could not get the yearly registration because it would show no insurance for the correct vin

Typos happen, even in Texas.

Thank you for all the suggestions. I have pretty much exhausted all options. I will continue my search. Here are a few pics of the car if you ever see it please let me know!

LH23G1R298605

In KY that would get your registration revoked and you’d soon know it. Something like a warning letter at 30 days with active plate and vin not covered, 60 days registration revoked. Not sure if cops will show up, they weren’t wanting to do actual work was issue when law was being debated. But it will cause you trouble for sure as I dropped a truck I wasn’t using one time and didn’t scurrying the plate to the clerk. When I restarted it caused a penalty premium to be added to the policy because the database showed I had an active plate without covered for a period.

Do you have family with yellow hemi Challenger in Akron area
Car has 340 with bolt ons, and 727, gear drive?

I do not have any family down in that area. The car was originally out of Ohio though before I purchased it from a guy up in Caseville Michigan. But the details about the car you are describing are correct.

My brother owns it

Well... My son would love to have that back in our garage if he wants to sell it please let me know. I would at least like to talk with him about it.