VW Rejecting Non-Clean Titles?

Radek

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2015 Passat SEL
We just received denials for 8 vehicles from the CRC.

All 8 cars were totaled after 6/28/16 and all were rebuilt November of 2017, well before the 2/26/18 deadline.

There was no reason given by the CRC other than, "The Claims Review Committee has carefully reviewed your appeal and determined that you are not eligible for benefits under the terms of the 2.0-Liter Class Action Settlement. As such, your appeal to the Claims Review Committee is denied"

I am looking for any leads on a good attorney at this point.......... Anyone know a good lawyer?
My Passat was rejected again for the same reason, no explanation why it doesn't qualify, anybody heard from buyback claims or got any news ?

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flargabarg

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Also if you have not started the process, do it now. Otherwise I can almost guarantee that they will not buy your car back.
 

duratitus

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Several different models. Selling them back to VW
Also if you have not started the process, do it now. Otherwise I can almost guarantee that they will not buy your car back.
Disregard that......
The deadline to submit a claim was September 1st, so if you've not started the prcoess before then you've already missed the boat.
 

Radek

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Check this spot next week...
Any luck guys with an attorney ? I tried reaching out to Allan @ buyback claims with no luck, I guess he's no longer interested in working with us

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E2Tdi

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2012 Jetta TDI
Any luck guys with an attorney ? I tried reaching out to Allan @ buyback claims with no luck, I guess he's no longer interested in working with us

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Hi, we have two attorneys working on it. This will not be a class action lawsuit so unless you are a participant in our suit, you will not get any benefit. We are going for the full amount that VW owes "us" owners as per the original settlement agreement.

Send me an email at dieselbuyback@gmail.com or give me a call 813-403-9362 and I can explain more. I am not affiliated with Alan's group.

Best Regards,

Erik G
 
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amizan

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Location
los angeles
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golf, jetta
2012 TDI Touareg rejected

I have a 2012 TDI Touareg with a Clean CA title with a total / salvage history in another state. (found out too late via Carfax)

they claim the car has a salvage title and rejected it just this past week. submitted appeal to CRC but I am not hopeful.

the car is fine - up and running. sent them video of me driving the damn car. they have a clean title photo. they are just trying to get out of paying.

at this point I will take buyback without the restitution but they are not even offering that.... has anyone had any luck with the CRC ruling in their favor?

Also, why are salvage cars getting buyback offers (no restitution) and I am sitting here getting nothing?
 

lvrpl

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Location
Texas
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Passat TDI
I have a 2012 TDI Touareg with a Clean CA title with a total / salvage history in another state. (found out too late via Carfax)
they claim the car has a salvage title and rejected it just this past week. submitted appeal to CRC but I am not hopeful.
the car is fine - up and running. sent them video of me driving the damn car. they have a clean title photo. they are just trying to get out of paying.
at this point I will take buyback without the restitution but they are not even offering that.... has anyone had any luck with the CRC ruling in their favor?
Also, why are salvage cars getting buyback offers (no restitution) and I am sitting here getting nothing?
Is your title clean, or rebuilt/restored? And when was it issued?

For what it's worth, I have a car that was salvage, repaired, submitted to the state for rebuilt title, and my state accidentally issued a clean title instead of a rebuilt title. This was all in summer 2017, so well before the Feb 2018 deadline to get salvage titles reissued/rebuilt. VW rejected my original claim and then I just heard back this week from the CRC that my appeal was also rejected.

Good luck, probably going to be an uphill battle for you.
 

bizzle

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Is your title clean, or rebuilt/restored? And when was it issued?
For what it's worth, I have a car that was salvage, repaired, submitted to the state for rebuilt title, and my state accidentally issued a clean title instead of a rebuilt title. This was all in summer 2017, so well before the Feb 2018 deadline to get salvage titles reissued/rebuilt. VW rejected my original claim and then I just heard back this week from the CRC that my appeal was also rejected.
Good luck, probably going to be an uphill battle for you.
Once a title is branded, it can't become unbranded (in California, at least). There are a few different ways to get a car's title to be registrable, but that won't make it "clean." I don't know of any way to convert a branded title into a clean title without some false representations or paperwork error (intentional or otherwise).

What happened in the case of the person you're responding to was a DMV error. His car was salvaged at one point and then restored or not, no branding was picked up by California DMV. It is still branded in the vehicle history, which is why it showed up in CARFAX, and it might even rebrand upon sale to another Californian.

I've only seen this happen once. I had a car that was salvaged in Washington, then branded as resurrected in Oregon, but when I finally brought it back home to California the title came to me "clean," which I knew was a mistake. I was tempted to turn around and sell it right then and there to a fellow Californian but my conscious, etc. conflicted with that. The car was one of those 65+ MPG Geo Metros that could be bought for a few hundred and then sold for upwards of 5K depending on fuel prices (at the time). In any case, I sold it back to some family friends in Oregon (with full disclosure that the title was currently clean but that the true history could be picked up in the future at any time without any warning) and sure enough when their son registered it the title came back Restored or whatever they use.

That was also the lesson I learned about due diligence and title branding since the seller didn't disclose the title brand to me when I bought it but neither did I ask nor did I pay attention to the title sitting on the table.
 

lvrpl

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Location
Texas
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Passat TDI
Once a title is branded, it can't become unbranded (in California, at least). There are a few different ways to get a car's title to be registrable, but that won't make it "clean." I don't know of any way to convert a branded title into a clean title without some false representations or paperwork error (intentional or otherwise).
What happened in the case of the person you're responding to was a DMV error. His car was salvaged at one point and then restored or not, no branding was picked up by California DMV. It is still branded in the vehicle history, which is why it showed up in CARFAX, and it might even rebrand upon sale to another Californian.
I've only seen this happen once. I had a car that was salvaged in Washington, then branded as resurrected in Oregon, but when I finally brought it back home to California the title came to me "clean," which I knew was a mistake. I was tempted to turn around and sell it right then and there to a fellow Californian but my conscious, etc. conflicted with that. The car was one of those 65+ MPG Geo Metros that could be bought for a few hundred and then sold for upwards of 5K depending on fuel prices (at the time). In any case, I sold it back to some family friends in Oregon (with full disclosure that the title was currently clean but that the true history could be picked up in the future at any time without any warning) and sure enough when their son registered it the title came back Restored or whatever they use.
That was also the lesson I learned about due diligence and title branding since the seller didn't disclose the title brand to me when I bought it but neither did I ask nor did I pay attention to the title sitting on the table.
I agree that my case was a DMV mistake. I would have just had the DMV reissue a rebuilt title but, by the time we realized the mistake and that VW would reject it because they saw it had been salvaged on the history, it was after the February deadline to get rebuilt titles issued. So we went with an appeal instead, explaining the situation and even including a copy from my state's DMV showing that they had checked the wrong box when they processed the submission to convert the salvage title to a rebuilt title back in 2017. No luck - appeal rejected.

That said, there absolutely some states where you can restore a salvage title to un-branded. There aren't many states, and the requirements are different in each (and again, my car I'm referring to was not this case, it was just a mistake by the DMV) - but it is possible in some cases to legitimately get a title unbranded. Sure, vehicle history will still show it was totaled and salvaged, but in some cases it can have the brand removed.
 

bizzle

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That said, there absolutely some states where you can restore a salvage title to un-branded. There aren't many states, and the requirements are different in each (and again, my car I'm referring to was not this case, it was just a mistake by the DMV) - but it is possible in some cases to legitimately get a title unbranded. Sure, vehicle history will still show it was totaled and salvaged, but in some cases it can have the brand removed.
No, there is no legitimate way to convert a branded title into a clean title.

What you are thinking about are certain states that classify various brands differently, and by routing a vehicle through those states one can remove a particular brand from the title, but that doesn't "clean" the car (and it's not a legitimate method, regardless).

If you try and pass that car off as a "clean" titled car, you can be prosecuted for fraud. If you don't know the car was "cleaned" like this, you might not be held liable for fraud but the car still won't be "clean." The car's status will still show with a VIN check and depending on where it gets registered the title will become branded again.

What you will have is a car's title that doesn't truly reflect its actual status (reflected in the official records)--but that doesn't make it a "clean" title just because the title doesn't reflect a brand.
 

k^2

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2010 Jetta Sportwagen DSG - Sold back to VW. Replaced with Sportwagen 2.5 GAS
i am looking for attorney accepting salvage titles 2.0 cars before 06 28 2016 please



I sold mine back to VW in March 2017. It had a rebuilt title. I bought it like that. I did not have any problems selling it back. It was a sweet deal for me as I bought the car with a discount for being rebuilt.
 

lvrpl

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Location
Texas
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Passat TDI
No, there is no legitimate way to convert a branded title into a clean title.
What you are thinking about are certain states that classify various brands differently, and by routing a vehicle through those states one can remove a particular brand from the title, but that doesn't "clean" the car (and it's not a legitimate method, regardless).
If you try and pass that car off as a "clean" titled car, you can be prosecuted for fraud. If you don't know the car was "cleaned" like this, you might not be held liable for fraud but the car still won't be "clean." The car's status will still show with a VIN check and depending on where it gets registered the title will become branded again.
What you will have is a car's title that doesn't truly reflect its actual status (reflected in the official records)--but that doesn't make it a "clean" title just because the title doesn't reflect a brand.
Ok, are we really going to do this again? Once again, you are absolutely wrong and giving misinformation. Is this common and do most states allow you to have a brand removed? No. But is it possible? Yes. Will you be prosecuted as you say if you do it legitimately in the few states that allow it? No.

And I'm not talking about white-washing a title by routing it through several states to try and lose the brand. That does happen, and it is wrong, as you say. I'm talking about owning a car in a state and legitimately having the brand removed in that same state.

State of Utah - look towards the bottom under "Can a salvage vehicle that has already been repaired have the brand removed from the title?"
https://dmv.utah.gov/titles/salvage-vehicles

Remember when you absolutely decreed that a car that was totaled by an insurance company could not retain an unbranded title (earlier in this thread, posts 1300 to 1315), and were absolutely wrong on that too? Even after proclaiming that you have a history of always making proclamations that seem to come true? Even despite links that were provided that contradicted your absolute and blanket statement? Well, here again we have a similar situation where your sweeping statements are misinformed, despite your profession as a legal scholar or whatever. (By the way - I just won multiple appeals on these types of cars where an insurance company totaled them but the state intentionally and correctly never issued a brand to the title.)
 
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bizzle

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Ok, are we really going to do this again? Once again, you are absolutely wrong and giving misinformation. Is this common and do most states allow you to have a brand removed? No. But is it possible? Yes. Will you be prosecuted as you say if you do it legitimately in the few states that allow it? No.

And I'm not talking about white-washing a title by routing it through several states to try and lose the brand. That does happen, and it is wrong, as you say. I'm talking about owning a car in a state and legitimately having the brand removed in that same state.

State of Utah - look towards the bottom under "Can a salvage vehicle that has already been repaired have the brand removed from the title?"
https://dmv.utah.gov/titles/salvage-vehicles
I read the link you provided to the Utah DMV and you seem to have misunderstood what you read:

If the DMV issues a branded title to a wrecked car, the owner can petition the DMV to remove the brand if it can be proven that the car only had damage to one major component that requires less than ten hours to repair and the car is newer than 7 years old.

The car won't be eligible for that if the repair has already been done or if the brand comes from out of state.

Utah automatically issues a branded title upon notice of an accident but the owner can remedy the situation before the brand becomes permanent. That isn't an example of an owner taking an existing brand off a title.
 

lvrpl

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Location
Texas
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Passat TDI
I read the link you provided to the Utah DMV and you seem to have misunderstood what you read:

If the DMV issues a branded title to a wrecked car, the owner can petition the DMV to remove the brand if it can be proven that the car only had damage to one major component that requires less than ten hours to repair and the car is newer than 7 years old.

The car won't be eligible for that if the repair has already been done or if the brand comes from out of state.

Utah automatically issues a branded title upon notice of an accident but the owner can remedy the situation before the brand becomes permanent. That isn't an example of an owner taking an existing brand off a title.
So....when Utah issues a branded title, in certain circumstances, you can petition to have the brand removed, right? Seems to be what both the link and you are saying.
 

bizzle

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Well, here again we have a similar situation where your sweeping statements are misinformed, despite your profession as a legal scholar or whatever.
I'm not going to get into another pointless debate with you (a moderator corrected you in that earlier discussion) but the person asking for advice was from Los Angeles, CA and I'm from California and I wrote my post explicitly about California.

Once a title is branded, it can't become unbranded (in California, at least).
In regards to Utah, however, I assume most people know the difference between what you just linked to and cleaning a previously branded title.
 
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lvrpl

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I'm not going to get into another pointless debate with you (a moderator corrected you in that earlier discussion) but the person asking for advice was from Los Angeles, CA and I'm from California and I wrote my post explicitly about California.
Haha, wow. I assume you're referring to post #1311 when you say I was corrected by a moderator? That is 100% NOT what I was talking about in that discussion there - he was misunderstanding the conversation. You were 100% wrong there. I personally have multiple cars that were totaled by an insurance company, signed over to the insurance company, and sold at a salvage auction to me, whereupon the insurance company signed the title over to me. And these were not ever issued brands to their titles, nor should they have been according to those states' laws, as referenced in my posts back then. It wasn't a loophole, and it wasn't whitewashing. It was intentional by those states. You were absolutely, 100% wrong when you said this wasn't possible and that is was fraudulent.

In regards to Utah, however, I assume most people know the difference between what you just linked to and cleaning a previously branded title.
What I linked IS cleaning a previously branded title. That's why I said sometimes this can be done.

And the problem is, this isn't at all what your (later) post said. I said a car could legitimately have a brand removed. You said it couldn't, at least in California. I said that in some states it could. And then you said, referring to my post about other states, that it absolutely couldn't be done and it would be fraud to do so. To which I posted a link showing Utah allows exactly what I said some states allow.

If you really meant that you were just referring to the difference between what I linked and to cleaning, you would have said, "True, lvrpl is right that a brand could be removed in certain circumstances, but that's not really what i'm talking about," instead of an unequivocal, blanket statement that what I said would be fraudulent, illegal, and completely not allowed.

Seriously man, learn to just say, "I was mistaken" occasionally.
 
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duratitus

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Several different models. Selling them back to VW
As the O.P. to this thread, please take your discussion to a private message if you don't mind.

Back to the original topic,
In our case the CRC has denied 40-50 appeals for vehicles that were rebuilt prior to Febuary 26, 2018.

It appears that their "general framework for processing branded title claims" published in the February 26 claims supervisor report is being applied randomly at best.

I would like to get in touch with others who have been denied on a vehicle that was rebuilt prior 2/26/18.
- I believe that if we join together we could pursue action that would force the CRC to apply their "framework" in a manner consistent with the settlement agreement, rather that at will.

Please send me a private message if you're interested. Thanks
 

lvrpl

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Location
Texas
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Passat TDI
As the O.P. to this thread, please take your discussion to a private message if you don't mind.

Back to the original topic,
In our case the CRC has denied 40-50 appeals for vehicles that were rebuilt prior to Febuary 26, 2018.

It appears that their "general framework for processing branded title claims" published in the February 26 claims supervisor report is being applied randomly at best.

I would like to get in touch with others who have been denied on a vehicle that was rebuilt prior 2/26/18.
- I believe that if we join together we could pursue action that would force the CRC to apply their "framework" in a manner consistent with the settlement agreement, rather that at will.

Please send me a private message if you're interested. Thanks
Sorry, I thought discussion and clarification of what VW considered salvage/rebuilt, what actually is salvage/rebuilt, and outcomes including appeals on such cars would be in line with the original intent of the thread.

As I mentioned, I won 5 appeals for cars that were totaled but not issued salvage titles after VW initially treated them as salvage and rejected the original claims. I also had 6 rebuilt titles accepted without appeal and 1 rejected because it couldn't be proven operable in June 2016, as noted earlier in this thread.
 

duratitus

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Several different models. Selling them back to VW
No problem, I thought the discussion about how diferent states handle totalled cars was okay, but the discussion was getting a little long imo.
 
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amizan

Member
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Jul 10, 2017
Location
los angeles
TDI
golf, jetta
Is your title clean, or rebuilt/restored? And when was it issued?

For what it's worth, I have a car that was salvage, repaired, submitted to the state for rebuilt title, and my state accidentally issued a clean title instead of a rebuilt title. This was all in summer 2017, so well before the Feb 2018 deadline to get salvage titles reissued/rebuilt. VW rejected my original claim and then I just heard back this week from the CRC that my appeal was also rejected.

Good luck, probably going to be an uphill battle for you.
The title is clear. not salvage. It was issued in CA in August 2018.

I don't know if it's a DVM error or whatever but i think it's ridiculous that VW is rejecting a clear title car based on Carfax history.

I appealed the decision to the CRC and waiting to hear back still.

So LVRPL - what did you end up doing with the Jetta that was rejected? if the CRC rejects the appeal, I will want sue those bastards. this is a Touareg and it's worth a pretty penny. I am not going to let them get away with this...

anyone know lawyers who will take this case?
 

duratitus

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Nov 21, 2016
Location
Watertown NY
TDI
Several different models. Selling them back to VW
Yes I have found a lawyer who is willing to take these cases on a contingency.

PM me for details.
 
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